Our all time Sharks XV

Loosehead prop Paul Smith joined the Sharks Colts team at the age of 18 and played more than 150 games for Sale and then Sale Sharks between 1988 and 2000, many alongside twin brother and fellow prop Andrew.  

He joined the club staff after injury forced him to retire, and took up a key role in the club’s finance team, before a chance convcersation with then Director of Rugby Philippe Saint-Andre led to him becoming Team Manager. 

He moved on to become the club’s Operations Manager, then Operations Director and was appointed CEO in 2024. 

Paul has dedicated his life to the club and we are delighted to make him our first Sharks Hall of Fame inductee. 

Former hooker Steve Diamond was synonymous with Sale Sharks for well over 40 years, serving the club as both a player with more than 350 first team appearances, and as director of rugby.  

A true one-club man, Diamond played for the club for eleven years before returning in 2001, alongside Jim Mallinder, to coach the team. Stints with England Saxons, Saracens and the Russian national team followed before the ever-popular ‘Dimes’ returned to Sale in 2011, taking over from the departing Mike Brewer.

In December 2020, fans’ favourite Steve announced that he would leave Sale Sharks for personal reasons. He went on to coach Worcester Warriors and Newcastle Falcons, but he remains a huge part of our history and we’re thrilled to make him the second Hall of Fame inductee. 

Winger Steve Hanley started his rugby life playing for Cumbrian side Aspatria but his career took off after he played in the old Fourth Division and represented England in every age group all in the space of six months. 

He signed a professional deal with Sale in the 1998/99 season and it wasn’t long before he got his opportunity – away to Leicester – when winger Tom Beim hurt his shoulder in training. He impressed in the newly-named Sharks first team and was called into Clive Woodward’s England squad for the final Five Nations tournament in 1999. 

Steve played just once during the tournament, in England’s final game against Wales at Wembley. He scored a debut try but England were beaten with a last-minute Scott Gibbs score. 

It was to be Steve’s only international appearance but on the domestic front, he went from strength to strength. After spending ten years as a Shark, he retired at the age of 29 as the league’s record try scorer. In total he scored 104 tries for the club, with 75 coming in the Premiership. 

Our fourth Hall of Famer completes the legends front-row. Prop Ross Harrison joined Sale Sharks in 2011 and by the end of his first season his performances had earned him the Sharks’ Young Player of the Year award.  

He was called up to the England Saxons squad in January 2015 and made his 100th appearance for the Sharks against Harlequins on November 6, 2015.  

Ross’s club form was rewarded with a call-up to the England squad to play the Barbarians in a non-cap game in summer 2014. He toured South Africa with England Saxons the following year before being invited by Eddie Jones to a training camp for the senior England squad in May 2017.  

 At Sharks, he has an impressive track record, having surpassed 200 club appearances in January 2019 when he was just 26 years old. He’s hoping to hit the magic 300 during the 24/25 season. 

Hailing from Manchester, Dean Schofield is widely recognised as a true hardman of the professional era and one of the finest forwards of his generation.  

Dean started his rugby journey at Aldwinians but made his breakthrough when he signed for Sharks from Wakefield in 2001. 

Comfortable operating in both the second-row and the back-row, he went on to play 162 times for Sale and was part of the squad that won the European Challenge Cup in 2005 and the Premiership in 2006. 

Dean played twice for England on their 2007 summer Tour of South Africa and in 2010 was described by rugby journalist Stephen Jones as one of the ‘locks of the decade’ behind only England stalwart Simon Shaw in his estimation. 

Dean was appointed Sharks captain in 2010 but left the club at the end of that season. He played for Toulon, Worcester, London Welsh and Yorkshire Carnegie before hanging up his boots.