Sale FC Rugby
The original Sale club, founded in 1861 and still playing amateur and semi-pro rugby at Heywood Road, the spiritual home from which Sale Sharks grew.
Sale FC is the original club, founded in 1861, and one of the oldest rugby union clubs in the world. When the game went professional in the 1990s, the elite operation split off and became Sale Sharks, eventually moving to Salford. Sale FC remained at Heywood Road, the historic ground in Sale itself, and continues to play in the National League system – the upper tiers of the amateur and semi-professional game.
This is rugby as the sport spent most of its history: a clubhouse, a committed local membership, junior and senior sides feeding each other, and a Saturday culture built around the bar as much as the pitch. Heywood Road still hosts the occasional Sharks pre-season or development fixture, which keeps a thread connecting the professional club to its roots.
Sale is in Trafford, reachable by Metrolink, and Heywood Road is a short walk from the tram. For anyone who finds the professional game over-produced, the grassroots rugby at Sale FC is the real thing.