Buoyed by their opening day success at Newcastle Falcons, Sale will bring up the curtain on their Edgeley Park Guinness Premiership campaign with a crucial home clash against Saracens.
And they'll step out onto a pristine playing surface thanks to summer surgery by the Edgeley Park groundstaff - a far cry from the parlous state the pitch was in last spring.
The ground came in for a fair bit of hammer last season. The cumulative effect of Sale and Stockport County both playing at Edgeley Park - not to mention appalling winter and spring weather - took a heavy toll and on occasions, most notably when Sale played Bath last March, it resembled more a swamp than a professional pitch.
Over the summer, in a bid to find a solution, extensive work was carried out on the playing surface which was also re-seeded. And while the damp, warm summer hasn't been to everyone's benefit, in terms of encouraging fresh grass growth, it has proved ideal.
Now, Sale's director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre is hoping his side can take full advantage of a reinvigorated surface that last season proved more of a hindrance than a help.
Weather
"I hope the new pitch will benefit us but with all the weather we have had maybe we need a roof as we have had more rain in September than in November!" he said.
"At the moment the pitch is in great condition and I know our chief executive James Jennings and a lot of the other people at Edgeley Park have tried to work hard to ensure that there are not too many double-up games this season between ourselves and Stockport County.
"Last season, I remember key matches where the pitch made it so difficult for us to play a quick game. I don't think it's a coincidence that there were a number of games at Edgeley Park where we failed to score a bonus point which could have proved crucial come the end of the season.
"We know Manchester is not a sunny town but last season I think that 70 per cent of our home games were played in the rain!
"So I just hope that this Friday the weather will be nice for us."
Saint-Andre also wants his players to maintain the desire and will-to-win that was so evident at Kingston Park last weekend.
And he revealed the achievement of having finally triumphed, at the 17th time of asking, at their bogey ground was forgotten almost as soon as the squad climbed aboard the coach bring them back to Cheshire
"We need to keep the spirit we showed at Newcastle. We have to remember there will be some tough times as well as some nice times for us this season," Saint-Andre added. "It's a very, very short week and as soon as we got on the coach back from Newcastle we were focused on Saracens.
"We watched a video of their defeat against Harlequins and also went over our performance against Newcastle."
Saint-Andre will also enjoy the luxury of being able to select from a virtual full-strength squad with winger Rory Lamont (pictured), hooker Sebastien Bruno and prop Andrew Sheridan all fit again and available. Scotland captain Jason White also successfully came through a 60 minute workout for the Jets in their defeat against Gloucester on Monday.
Meanwhile, Scottish hooker Scott Lawson has left Sale to join Gloucester. The 26-year-old, who has 16 senior caps, has signed a deal that will run until the end of next season and will join up alongside former Sale hooker Andy Titterrell at Kingsholm.
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