There’s an often-told story about Michelle Orange being dead against husband Simon’s idea they might buy Sale Sharks. ‘We’d moved to New York and were happy in our lives,’ explains Michelle. ‘I thought it was a mad idea. Now I’m completely involved.’

In fact, Michelle is the most hands-on of her fellow owners – she and Simon own the club alongside Ged Mason of the Morson Group. Michelle has an office at the club’s impressive Carrington headquarters and training centre and is there at least three days a week.

We chatted in the boardroom to a backing track of pulsing beats as the men’s team lifted some serious weights in the gym. But rather than the likes of England internationals George Ford, Tom Curry and Tom Roebuck, the focus of our conversation was the meteoric rise of Sale Sharks women.

Michelle has a social media nickname of Mummy Shark and her burgeoning brood of female Sharks are gunning for honours for the first time in 2026/27.

The Sale Sharks women now play in front of crowds of up to 1,800 people at the Morson Stadium, Heywood Road, in the heart of the town of Sale, where there’s a special atmosphere, described by fans as one big party.

‘Match days are a joy,’ says Michelle. ‘Around two years ago, we were getting crowds of 200 to 400; now it’s 1,400 to 1,800. The atmosphere is special at the Morson Stadium. The crowd is close to the pitch and supporters get to meet the players after the match.’

Michelle says that while the male and female games are different, it’s important Sale Sharks is one club.

‘By 2018, I was coming into Carrington a lot and I got to know people working in the Sale Sharks Foundation, including Georgie Perris-Redding,’ recalls Michelle. ‘Georgie was working here and playing elsewhere and I began to think how could we get a team.’

The opportunity arose in 2020, and despite Covid lockdown issues, Sale Sharks Women started on their professional journey with a first league game that September.

‘It was hard starting from nothing and most players were with clubs in the south and didn’t want to move to a new team, perhaps because of a fear of jeopardising their place in the international set-up,’ says Michelle.

But now Sale Sharks women are swimming with the biggest PWR clubs and have signed England World Cup-winning captain Zoe Stratford.

Zoe arrived at Carrington with fellow Red Roses Tatyana Heard and Sarah Beckett this summer, joining England colleagues Holly Aitchison and Amy Cokayne and a host of US, Scottish and Welsh internationals.

‘I am one of the few owners of a major rugby club with a truly hands-on role. Everyone here knows me and comes to speak to me,’ says Michelle. ‘It is also important that we are one club. A successful future involves both our men and women.’

For Michelle, this means developing a pathway for girls who want to play competitive rugby. ‘If you are a 14-year-old girl who is passionate about rugby, where can you go? We are changing that lack of provision, working with MMU to get a team at BUCS level (the highest British Universities Rugby Union standard).’

‘I’m from Sale and was born in the maternity hospital in Altrincham,’ says Michelle. ‘My earliest memories of rugby are of seeing the Five Nations in black and white on TV with my dad and recognising the name Sale when the rugby results appeared on the BBC Grandstand teleprinter.

‘There was, of course, no chance to play back then even though our home backed on to the playing fields at Sale Grammar School for Girls. But I did get to go to Heywood Road with my dad.’

Then something happened which, unbeknownst to Michelle, would resonate years later after she met her husband, Simon, chief executive of Altrincham-based business CorpAcq. Sale legend, England and British and Irish Lions scrum half Steve Smith moved into a house on the same road as Michelle’s family.

‘Rugby players weren’t quite the same as they are now. Steve would drink in the Little B near the ground, then they’d all come back to our road and annoy the neighbours,’ Michelle says.

A-Levels followed, Michelle went off to university and her association with rugby in Sale faded.

Sale Sharks co-owners Michelle and Simon Orange. Their commitment to the club is such that it is a beneficiary of their will.

She came back to the area and married Simon – and then Simon met Steve.

‘Simon joined Mere Golf and Country Club and one day came home from golf to say he’d no real idea who he was, but he’d met this fascinating guy called Steve Smith. Simon had no interest in rugby, but Steve was still involved in the rugby club and we were invited along,’ Michelle says.

At this point, there was no suggestion of Simon and Michelle becoming involved with the sport and they moved to New York, living near Central Park.

But, back in England, the game had gone professional and Sale Sharks were born. Glory followed as they won the English Premiership in 2006, with Brian Kennedy, another highly successful Cheshire-based business owner, as chairman.

Then Steve Diamond, a stalwart of the Sale club, arrived in New York for dinner with the Oranges. ‘He was coaching Russia and they were on tour in America, but Steve wanted to tell us that Brian was ready to leave and we should buy Sale Sharks.’

That’s when Michelle said no. The couple, childless by choice, were enjoying life in the Big Apple and Heywood Road seemed a distant memory.

‘Once Simon has an idea he likes, he’s hard to stop,’ says Michelle, and the rest is history.

Now, she’s committed to the future of Sale Sharks, with the club a major beneficiary in the couple’s will.

While Simon built his multi-industry acquisition group CorpAcq astutely, selling a major share last year in a deal said to be worth more than £1billion, the Sale Sharks co-owners see their sporting interests as investments. Instead of looking to turn a profit, they look at how much it costs to pay a player and ask whether it is affordable.

That passion shines through when you see Michelle at Carrington. She has described herself as a minister without portfolio, but the reality is she knows everything and everyone at the club and is as happy chatting with the chef and canteen staff as the well-known names, such as Tom Curry, Courtney Lawes and Zoe Stratford.

She’s modest about her role but when I met players Georgie Perris-Redding, Lizzie Duffy, Zoe Stratford and Rhona Lloyd, they were quick to tell me Michelle is key to the Sharks’ operation.

It became clear I had just met the North West’s First Lady of Sport.

THE PLAYERS

George Perris-Reading.

Georgie Perris-Redding

Georgie grew up on a Cheshire farm but was born in Detroit and represents the US national team. Leading by example, Georgie is the Sale Sharks captain and has captained her country.

She was there at the birth of the Sale Sharks, along with her sister, India, who has now retired due to injuries.

‘I grew up on a farm in Hatherton and started playing rugby at Crewe and Nantwich with the boys aged seven,’ she says. ‘There was no girls’ team and I went into athletics; I ran for the Crewe and Nantwich club and was a trampolinist.’

Missing team sports, Georgie, a former Malbank School pupil, got into netball but wanted something more physical. She eventually joined Waterloo, then the premier North West women’s team, and then Worcester, while working for Sale Sharks in the community office.

Georgie says: ‘I was desperate for Sale to launch a team and have been playing here since the start in 2020. There are lots more opportunities for girls now and sometimes I have felt envious. For most of us, school rugby wasn’t an option, but we have played our part in the development, and I know many will benefit from the pathway we have at Sale Sharks.’

Zoe Stratford.

Zoe Stratford

‘If I could bottle that feeling and relive it every day, it would be fantastic,’ said Zoe on lifting the World Cup for the Red Roses in 2025.

‘It was insane, but it was also the culmination of many years of hard work.

‘I grew up in Scarborough and first played for the club there before going to West Park, Leeds, aged 15, and then on to Hartpury College, Gloucestershire, where I studied a BTech with rugby. It meant I was able to play on their rugby programme.’

Zoe first won a Central England contract in 2019. Her success in the sport led to her being crowned World Player of the Year in 2021 and she has three PWR (Premier Women’s Rugby) championship-winning medals and an OBE.

She moved to the Sharks with fellow England internationals and former Gloucester Hartpury players Sarah Beckett and Tatyana Heard, for the 2026-27

PWR season. But there was a special family reason for Zoe to head to Carrington and the Morson Stadium. She’s starting a family.

Zoe said: ‘My husband, Luke, is a coach here, and he loves it. We want to be in the same place to bring up our baby. I’m also now closer to my mum and dad in Scarborough.’

‘During pregnancy I kept up fitness by training as much as possible. I couldn’t do contact training, but ran and worked out in the gym.’

Zoe may miss the start of the new PWR season, but she’s determined to get back on the pitch quickly, possibly before the turn of the year, and has international ambitions with England and a British Lions tour to aim for.

Rhona Lloyd

Rhona Lloyd

Edinburgh-born Scotland winger Rhona arrived at Sale Sharks from Bordeaux in 2025.

Off the pitch, Rhona presents a podcast called Woman Who Sport alongside fellow Scottish international Sarah Bonar, with an aim to inspire and empower women athletes.

‘I love playing at Heywood Road. The atmosphere is always fantastic. We know there are a lot of people from the area that are behind us. It feels like home,’ she says.

‘Last season was huge for us with the arrival of England internationals, such as Amy (Cokayne) and Holly (Aitchison), and now we have moved forward again. We are building on the success of last year and are aiming for the play-offs.’

A 50-plus capped international, Rhona’s message to the next generation of women players is to ‘have a go, you never know where it could lead. You can now aspire to be professional rugby players’.

Lizzie Duffy.

Lizzie Duffy

‘We have shaken off that underdog mentality and are aiming for the play-offs for the first time,’ says Lizzie. Coming from the Rugby League heartland of St Helens, she first picked up a rugby ball aged seven and has played League and Union.

Describing a typical training day, Lizzie says: ‘We come in at 3pm and start with skills out on the pitch. We then do a gym session and follow that with a team meeting, before finishing up back on the pitch.’

Training is three days a week, 3pm to 9pm, in pre-season, with four sessions on match weeks.

‘When I started, I had to play with the lads. Then I found a girls’ team when I was 12,’ she says. ‘I was chosen to go through the England pathway and came here on a trial for four weeks around six years ago. I never left.’.