Sale statement: The signing of Sam Bedlow from Bristol

Alex Sanderson has secured a deal taking ex-Sale academy graduate Sam Bedlow back to the Sharks for the 2023/24 season. He left for Bristol in 2017 but will now return after six years away. The signing will likely increase speculation that a deal won’t be struck to retain fellow midfielder Manu Tuilagi at the club next season, Sanderson admitting last week that an extension was proving difficult to nail down.

A statement read: “Sale Sharks have agreed to a deal to re-sign former academy graduate Sam Bedlow from Bristol Bears from the start of the 2023/24 Gallagher Premiership season. The 27-year-old centre, who played 10 first-team games for Sharks in his first spell at the club, has signed a long-term contract to join younger brother Joe in Alex Sanderson’s squad.

“Boyhood Sale fan Sam originally joined Sharks as a 17-year-old after leaving Myerscough College. Bedlow progressed through the club’s academy programme and after a loan spell at Fylde, made his debut in a Challenge Cup fixture at Welsh side the Dragons. He joined Bristol Bears in 2017, signed his first senior contract two years later and has since gone on to make more than 60 appearances for Pat Lam’s team.”

Bedlow said: “I’m so excited to be coming back up north to be close to my family and to play for the club I supported and watched as a kid. The club has changed a lot since I was here before but I know so many of the coaches and some of the players too. I’ve heard really great things about Alex and it’s obviously a club that’s on the way up.

“It’ll be brilliant to be playing with my brother Joe too. I know when I was coming through the academy I looked up to the senior players as role models. Hopefully I can do that for Joe and some of the other fantastic young players at the club too. I’m fully focused on ending the season well with Bristol, but I can’t wait to get started at Sale.”

Sale boss Sanderson added: “Sam left here as a highly-rated young player but he’s coming back as someone who we believe has increased his skillset, matured and become one of the top-performing centres in the Premiership. He’s a big guy but he can play 10, 12 or 13 and he’s a real triple threat – he can run, kick and pass. He’s a great lad and a fantastic communicator and he’s only 27. I really think the best is yet to come from him.

“His family is up here and his brother is at the club and he’s coming back here for all the right reasons. He can see where the club is going and he knows it’s a club where good, northern players know they can progress their careers and be a part of building something special. This is right for him for all the right reasons, and it’s right for us for all the right reasons.”