SALE Sharks chief Philippe Saint-Andre has challenged his players to reclaim their place among Europe's elite.

After winning the Guinness Premiership and reaching the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup in 2006, Sale were hopeful of scaling the summit of European rugby last term.

Instead, a catalogue of crippling injuries to high-profile stars saw the club crash out the Heineken Cup at the group stages and, more critically, fail to qualify for this season's tournament after finishing tenth in the league.

Now, buoyed by the recovery of all of his injured warriors and reinvigorated by a series of key summer signings, most notably All Black superstar Luke McAlister, Sale's director of rugby has set out his stall for the coming campaign.

And Saint-Andre made it crystal clear that top of his list of priorities is an instant return to the top table of European club rugby.

"Last year was a nightmare," he said. "We had between eight and nine key players injured all the time. You need your big players to play 20 games for you and that was not the case last year.

"We have a similar size squad this time around but I hope that we don't have as many injuries.

"We will try to win the European Shield, which we did two years ago. For the Shield games I will have all my squad available.

"But the target is to be in the Heineken Cup again next year and, if we can win silverware again it will be nice.

"If we can manage to finish in the top four of the Guinness Premiership, I am sure I have the team to challenge anybody.

"We have two leagues - the league in the World Cup when we have four or five games that we need to get as many points as we can from.

"That's what we will focus on and then we will set targets again when all the guys are back from the World Cup."

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