Sale have yet to record a win this season after suffering narrow defeats to Bath and Gloucester, leaving them tenth in the Aviva Premiership with just two bonus points.

Sale will be looking to secure their first win of the season as they travel to a Gloucester side smarting from their heaviest Premiership defeat to Northampton last time out.

A disappointing Commonwealth Games campaign in Glasgow brought an underwhelming fifth-place finish following defeats to Australia and Samoa however England lead the European Sevens Grand Prix ahead of the Manchester leg this weekend.

Manchester’s AJ Bell Stadium this weekend follows in the footsteps of Lyon and Moscow as hosts of the European Rugby Sevens Grand Prix Series.

England, winners of the second leg in Moscow and tournament pacesetters, kick off the event on Saturday against Romania, before runners-up Scotland face Spain in match three and third-place finishers Wales take on first-leg champions France in match five.

The Sharks will be hoping to build upon last season’s sixth-place finish, considered by many to be something of an over-achievement having narrowly avoided relegation the year before, as they take on Bath on Saturday.

Lund has played the last six seasons in France for Biarritz but made his Sharks debut in 2002 and helped the team win the championship four years later.

The 33-year-old, currently undergoing rehabilitation on a knee injury, was impressed with fly-half Cipriani’s performances on the tour in New Zealand as Sale look ahead to the new season.

Christchurch-born Paterson played for an England XV against the Barbarians at the start of the month and England Head Coach Stuart Lancaster has decided to add the former Hurricane as cover.

Having clawed his way back into the England squad and, thanks to George Ford’s injury, the mercurial Cipriani is in with a real chance of getting the nod from Stuart Lancaster to start at fly half.

Diamond’s men flirted with relegation last season though a much-improved 2013-14 brought Sale a sixth-place finish and European rugby again in 2014-15