James delighted to join Sale’s 200 club

Jon Newcombe talks to the Sharks back about playing for the club he has supported his whole life

SAM JAMES will make his 200th first-team appearance for Sale Sharks against Bristol next Saturday, joining the likes of Mark Cueto and current team-mate Ross Harrison in the select double centurions club. While Cueto also enjoyed a stellar career with both club and country, Harrison and James' names are two that often come up in conversations about the best Premiership players to never be capped by England. An England Saxons tour to South Africa in the summer of 2016 is the closest either has really come to making the step up, not that you'll find James complaining about his lot in life. For him, satisfaction comes from representing the club that he holds dear to his heart for so long.

“It is the club I supported since I was as a kid, I grew up watching games down at Edgeley Park, I was ball boy for a couple of seasons as well, it means everything to me,” he said. “It is a privilege to get my first cap let alone my 200th. Every time I do pull on the shirt I think how lucky I am to be playing for the team that I have supported my whole life. I want nothing but the best for the club.”

James' willingness and ability to adapt to what is in front of him puts him in a same sort of bracket as one his boyhood heroes, Will Greenwood, another native of the North West. Like Greenwood, James relies on silky skills and instinct rather than brawn, and while they are both 6'4, neither are full of muscle, to misappropriate the lyrics to Men at Work's 80's smash hit, Down Under.

Two early games against Northampton couldn't have been more contrasting in that one exposed his relatively slender frame to the physical demands of the Premiership, whereas the second proved that players of his calibre could still shine in the modern game.

“I have vivid memories of it,” he says of his debut down at Franklin's Gardens in April 2013. “I got run over by Luther Burrell and I was almost proud of it because my name got mentioned in commentary, that was the biggest thing.”

Coming on as a second-half substitute, James couldn't help but feel a bit starstruck as he lined up outside Danny Cipriani.

“The day he got signed was one of those moments where you got to meet your super heroes. Having someone I'd only ever seen and idolised on TV was quite cool. He was great with all the young lads and instilled a lot of confidence in us all so I was just excited to get on. I knew he wanted me to do well and would put me in positions to do that and I just wanted to show them what I could do.”

James, from Wilmslow in Cheshire, dislocated his elbow in the final game of the following pre-season and wasn't seen again for another year. But against Northampton in November 2015, James finally got to show what he could do, chipping the ball over Stephen Myler and scoring the match-winning try.

“From that point, I strung a few games together and, thankfully, they have kept me in ever since,” said James, who holds the club record for most Premiership starts at centre, in addition to 15 at flyhalf and 13 at full-back.

James repeated the trick against a star-studded Toulon side, one of the favourite moments of his career together with the more recent Premiership Cup win, but nowadays, as a more senior player, he is more circumspect in his decision-making.

“I'd like to say I'm not that much different as a player to when I made my debut but I think I am quite a bit different,” he said. “When you first get in the team, you are a little bit giddy and maybe try things that might not really be on.

“As a senior player you look at the bigger picture more. While I have scored from chip-and-chases a few times, I know I have also given away possession easily with others. Nowadays the game is all about territory and possession.”

For someone as humble as James, personal milestones are not the beall and end-all. But with super-organised kit/stat

man, Pete Allen, keeping tabs on appearances, James' impending double century was never going to be overlooked.

One thing James does know is that the majority of his appearances have come alongside his brother Luke, although the metric he uses isn't very conventional.

“I wouldn't say I am really superstitious but when I first broke through, I broke through with a very good friend of mine, Mike Haley, and before every game we used to do the same warm-up kicking routine, for three or four years. Mike moved to Munster and I didn't think about it until the first game of pre-season, when I had a realisation that he wasn't there to do our normal routine.

“It was quite a daunting moment but luckily my brother was in the team at the time and since then I have only ever had to rope one of the other lads in once or twice to help me in the warm-up so that tells me we've played the majority of the games together. It is quality playing alongside my brother. It's shame he is injured (for the Bristol game) but he'll be around and in training to give me that little bit of extra support and to help make it a special occasion.” James' parents will also be at the AJ Bell for the milestone Bristol match, as well as possibly his pregnant wife, Ruby, and other family members.

Having all his family around him and being a diehard blue, in rugby and football, Man City fan James says he couldn't imagine being anywhere else.

“Through the years this has always been the team for me in England. I am happy where I am.

“Moving has never been part of my thought process. I have either signed a contract straight away or been too deep into a contract to even consider moving.

“I have always been happy here, my family is here, and I have been lucky enough to have a career in something I am half decent at which I enjoy and love doing every day so why would I want to move that away from my family?”

Another upside is that he gets to train where Man City used to train.

“The Manchester lads are all City fans whereas the South Africans are all United, glory supporters from back in the day. I remember being in the old Carrington training ground, which is a couple of sets of fields away from where we are now, and it was so cool to be able to watch people like Joe Hart and Pablo Zabaleta train from the gym window.

“And now, as you drive in for training, there's trees lining the drive that Roberto Mancini apparently chose to make the place look nice.”

Still only 28 years of age and with a relatively clean injury record, the early elbow dislocation aside, James has every chance of converting his double century into a triple one.

“Half of me thinks I stay injury free because I have got no muscle or anything to me, it is just skin and bone! Hopefully I can get to that big 300 mark, that would be class.”