'Life without my brother is weird'

SALE stalwart Luke James admits his first season apart from older brother Sam has been "very weird".

- JON NEWCOMBE

Before the Curry twins and three du Preez brothers appeared on the scene, the sibling spotlight fell solely on local lads, Luke and Sam, boyhood supporters of the club who went on to fulfil their dream of playing for the Sharks.

Having lived, trained and played with each other and shared morning commutes for years, the brotherhood was broken up this summer when Sharks double-centurion Sam opted to sign for Racing 92 in France.

"It's been very weird especially as when I joined the club I lived with Sam first and when we moved out into separate houses we were only a few minutes away, around the corner from each other, so we'd drive in together every day and do stuff after training all the time. So to go from that to not seeing him I don't think I have seen him since June/July apart from when we played each other, obviously," Luke said.

Concerned that they may breach rules over information sharing, it was an awkward reunion when Racing 92 travelled over to Salford to play the Sharks in round two of the Champions Cup in the middle of December.

As salt-of-the-earth Mancunians, the James's integrity has never been in question but past events weighed heavily on their mind when they met in the build-up to the match.