ENGLAND'S loss is Sale's gain as far as Sharks head coach Kingsley Jones is concerned.

Not only have England chosen to leave a fully fit Charlie Hodgson at home while they defend their World Cup title in France, they have opted to do without forwards Magnus Lund and Chris Jones.

Kingsley said: "I can't understand why they have not taken Charlie to France, but as a Sharks coach I am not complaining.

"He is a world-class player and while I am naturally disappointed for him not making the cut, I am delighted that he will be playing for Sale from day one of the new season.

"The same goes for Magnus and Chris Jones.

Quality

"They are quality players and should be playing on a world stage, but it makes my job easier to have them with us and not with England."

Kingsley also believes this could be the year his charges finally overcome a Newcastle jinx and come away from Kingston Park with a win under their belts.

Ever since the game went professional, Sharks have never won in the north east, but Kingsley says that could all change on Sunday when the Guinness Premiership gets under way.

He said: "It's going to be a tough start, and history is not on our side, but we believe we can turn things around.

"The guys have worked hard over the summer under the watchful eye of Nick Johnston and our fitness and conditioning team.

"Hopefully, the injuries which plagued us last season are in the past and we are raring to go.

"We will be without a lot of key players on World Cup duty, but we have been aware of that throughout the pre-season and have trained accordingly.

"We have to get off to a good start, and I believe we can do that against Newcastle."

Combinations

Sharks have experimented with various combinations of players during pre-season matches against Bayonne and Samoa, and also mixed things up for an inter-squad game at Edgeley Park.

Jones added: "The warm-up games have been useful and we have learned a lot about our players.

"They are all aware that international players will be coming back after the World Cup, but I have told the others that if they play well in the first few weeks of the season, they keep the shirt."

Former Sharks centre Chris Rhys Jones has lost his battle to return to playing in the Guinness Premiership after the 25-year-old was forced to retire having dislocated his shoulder again in training for Leeds Carnegie.

Jones, who joined Leeds from Sale in 2005, missed nearly all of last season after dislocating his shoulder after just three appearances.

He had returned to full fitness and was preparing to resume playing before the shoulder was dislocated again.

Jones will stay with Leeds to work at their academy with the Under-19 side after graduating in sports science.

"It is obviously massively disappointing to have to retire," he said.

"Having missed all last season, I was looking forward to getting back to playing and I would have loved to have played in the Guinness Premiership again.

"However, just as I was getting back to full fitness, my left shoulder went again in training and I knew by the way that it came out far too easily that there was a major problem."

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