Can Sale recover after season of strife?

For the previous three seasons, Sale Sharks have flown the flag as the northern powerhouse of English club rugby.

But this current campaign has left Sale battered and bruised and those foundations severely tested.

"It was the longest, hardest, most challenging season I've ever had," director of rugby Alex Sanderson admitted.

They eventually ended it in seventh after winning only five of their 18 Prem matches, leaving them a whopping 27 points adrift of the play-off spots.

With no consecutive league wins all season and just one victory on the road, the 2025-26 version of the Sharks was unlike what had been on show before.

Yet is it the start of a decline or just a blip in the road for Sale?

The north-west club won their only title in 2006, with stars such as Jason Robinson and Sebastian Chabal. Since replacing Steve Diamond as director of rugby in early 2021, Sanderson, a former Sale player, has been attempting to recreate that success.

They reached the final again in 2023 only to lose to Saracens at Twickenham, and were beaten semi-finalists in the play-offs in both 2024 and 2025.

No other team matched that consistency as Sale were the only ones to finish in the top four in each of those campaigns, with their 38 wins the most of any team during the regular season.

They could not quite make the biggest leap of all, but they were firmly ensconced in the upper echelons.

With two wins from their opening three games in the 2025-26 season, it looked likely to be more of the same from Sale, but from then on, the wheels came off.

It started with a 65-14 drubbing away to Saracens in October as teenage wing Noah Caluori ran in five tries on his first Prem start.

But it was a surprise 27-26 home loss to Exeter Chiefs in November that hinted at trouble ahead as the hosts gave up a 20-point lead early in the second half to succumb to their first home defeat of the season.

The CorpAcq Stadium has been a source of strength for Sale, but this season they lost more games there than they won. A home defeat by Northampton Saints in January effectively ended their top-four hopes with eight games still to play.

In 2026, they suffered the heaviest losses in the club's history - a 77-7 smashing away to star-studded French giants Toulouse in the Champions Cup in January, and an 85-19 humiliation at home by Saracens in April as Caluori helped himself to five more tries.

Success at Harlequins six days after that debacle was Sale's only away victory in The Prem and gave them some breathing space in guaranteeing a top-eight spot and a Champions Cup place for next season.

But giving up leads to lose at both Gloucester and Newcastle Red Bulls - two of the three sides to finish below them - in the final weeks of the campaign showed Sale had lost the hard winning edge of previous campaigns.

As befits a campaign that has gone badly astray, injuries have played a key part.

Sale's England core have nearly all spent significant stretches on the treatment table and been unavailable for selection.

Back-row twins Tom and Ben Curry, winger Tom Roebuck, Asher Opoku-Fjordjour, and in recent weeks, fellow front-rowers Bevan Rodd and Luke Cowan-Dickie, have all missed large chunks of action.

The coaching front has also been affected. Marco Bortolami left his job as head coach in December after just six months at the club, while defence coach Byron McGuigan started a job share with England in October before leaving Sale in March.

Sanderson said he had been tested in a way he had not experienced before, but with the support of owner Simon Orange, he had real conviction that things would turn around.

"In the tough times, the adversity, you get to see who stands up in terms of leaders," Sanderson said.

"Young lads have to step up, which they did, and you realise who's in your corner and for what reasons.

"For all of those things, I'm really grateful, for learning the lessons the hard way and I'm very positive about the future."

Sale have strengthened their squad for next season by signing England internationals Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski, along with Wales front-row pair Nicky Smith and Tomas Francis, to add experience and ease the pressure on the club's promising homegrown players.

While it looks bad at the moment, Sale can take solace in the fact that all of this season's Prem top four have had bleak years in the recent past.

Just 12 months ago, Northampton Saints and Exeter Chiefs were eighth and ninth respectively. Leicester Tigers were down in eighth two years ago, while Bath propped up the entire division in 2022.

And it is how those clubs have bounced back, as well as coping with what has happened this season, that provides Sanderson with belief for an on-field upturn.

"To some degree, you have to hit rock bottom to learn," he told BBC Sport.

"It has to really hurt and really matter for all the changes you have to make when you're at that end of the table. It puts you in good stead moving forward.

"So I do think this season will be defining for us, not for the losses, but for how bright the future is going to be."