Sharks appoint Turner as coach

Coach Kevin Fellows has left the club because of illness and work commitments and his assistant Brett Turner steps up.

Turner has grown up at the Cross, doing various jobs at the club, among them player, touch judge, going round with the hat and was coach to the A team.

He will get advice from the Sharks’ director of rugby, Super League star Lee Gilmour.

Gilmour is available more often now after the end of the Huddersfield Giants season and will attend training on Thursdays and matches at the weekend, when Giants’ commitments permit.

The Sharks are likely to be weakened on Saturday as 22 members of the club, including some of the ‘old lags’ such as Mick Turner, Daz Senior and Adie Ripley, leave for Benidorm today to celebrate the 50th birthday of Chris Squires. Some players are also going to the Grand Final.

This apart things are looking up with far more players to choose from and two narrow opening defeats have been followed by two resounding wins and full-back Pat Foulstone has scored six tries in the last three matches.

The oldest member of the team which won at Crosfields last Saturday was John Rourke at 25.

The 40-28 victory margin would have been greater but the side eased off the last five minutes when the home team grabbed three tries.