Dan Birchall insists Sale FC remain firmly in the National One promotion race, despite narrowly losing to two of the division’s early frontrunners.

Sale won four of their opening seven matches and scored 281 points, but defeats to unbeaten Plymouth Albion and Tonbridge Juddians have left them playing catch-up.
The Manchester club went down 31-21 to Plymouth last weekend, having previously suffered an extraordinary 52-49 defeat to Tonbridge before a narrow 33-29 loss away to Camborne on Saturday.
However, long-serving prop Birchall, 37, believes Sale have demonstrated they can compete with t...