Mark Cueto: In his testimonial year

Related links

Teams

• Sale

Sale Sharks wing Mark Cueto is aware that time is running out if he wants to end his career with some more silverware on his mantelpiece.

But the 32-year-old insists that the current Sharks squad is ready to challenge at the top end of the Aviva Premiership table this campaign.

During the off-season, rather than the wholesale changes of 12 months ago, Sale made smaller but equally important dealings, bringing in players with international pedigree like Danny Cipriani and Richie Gray.

Bryan Redpath has also returned to his former club as director of rugby but the side have not quite clicked in the season's opening skirmishes, losing to Exeter and then last weekend being forced to settle for a losing bonus point in the first game at their new home the Salford City Stadium against Saracens.

But for Cueto, who is in his testimonial year, all the signs point towards an improvement on last season's sixth-place finish that brought Heineken Cup rugby back to the club.

"I've probably got a couple of years left but this is a really exciting club to be involved with at the moment both on and off the pitch," he said.

"I would love to grab one more trophy before I'm done, I've had the highs of winning the Premiership and also the lows of fighting off relegation the last couple of seasons.

"But now I look at our squad and I think we are ready to challenge, as opposed to the summers where we have been bringing in 15 or sometimes even more than that new faces make it hard to gel as a team.

"And by the time you do it's too late but this summer it's only been two or three changes and this feels as close as we have been for a while to a squad that can challenge."

On Saturday the Sharks will travel to the Stoop to take on the reigning champions Harlequins, themselves a team under Conor O'Shea that do not like to make wholesale squad changes.

Relegated back in 2005 it was Cueto's try that sealed Quins' fate but their subsequent return to the top of English rugby has made for compelling viewing.

And, ten years after his debut, the one club man Cueto has no idea where all that time has gone.

"I can still remember my debut like it was yesterday," he added.

"And then winning the Premiership in 2006 was amazing. Scoring that try against Quins does not feel that long ago at all but in reality it must be seven years now.

"But it's great to have them back, they've got a fantastic history and deserve to be back at the top of the English game and it's up to us to try and emulate them."

Rugby Union betting odds