"DON'T get that wrong", says Jos Baxendell, when I mistakenly refer to him as being 29.

I make some pathetic joke about not wanting to upset the Captain of Sale Sharks.

And who can blame me? He's a strapping six foot rugby player with no spare flesh on him.

I'm five foot six with a spare tyre. No contest really.

Jos's trim frame proves that the stereotype of people who play this sport is just that, a stereotype.

If he lives on curries and lager he hides it well. Rugby teams at university do over indulge but you are at a daft age, he says.

He comes across as a nice guy and it's hard to imagine this mild mannered Mancunian getting stuck into an opponent.

But get stuck in he does and while most people would run the other way if a muscle bound meathead was thundering towards them, Jos has to decided where to tackle them.

"If they are really big it's easier to tackle them around the legs", he says.

When we spoke he was nursing a dislocated finger but, touch wood, he's escaped serious injury. However, getting hurt is always at the back of his mind after what happened to team mate Andy Blyth. Blyth suffered serious injuries in an on the field accident.

On a trivial note, Jos jokes that it's useful to have a girlfriend who works as a nurse when you play such a physical game. Lucy comes to the occasional game, he says.

If rugby wasn't stamina sapping enough, he plays sport, football, basketball and racquet sports, in his spare time. Jos is also interested in the markets. The financial ones, not Altrincham and Urmston.

His love of the game grew when he was a pupil at King's School in Macclesfield. After completing his schooling he went on to Sheffield Polytechnic where he qualified as a surveyor. Now he works part time for Warrington based company Business Environments.

Jos has been playing outside centre for Sale for the past six years and it was a friend who introduced him to the club while he was still playing for his university side.

He might wear the number 13 on his back but so far it hasn't proved unlucky for him. Last season he was appointed captain of Sale and he's toured with England.

It was a sobering experience for Jos, playing in an under strength team alongside some of the giants of the sport. And let's face it, they don't come much bigger than New Zealand's Jonah Lomu. Playing against the cream was an invaluable learning curve for the Timperley based 28 year old.

Dubbed 'the tour to hell' it saw him play against the All Blacks and South Africa.

"It was good to play against the best players in the world and I thought I played all right out there. Its nice to know that if you really put your mind to it you can play at that level", he says.

He played his first game for Sale in January 1994 after signing for them in the autumn of 1993. What have been the highlights of his career with them?

"The best season for the club was probably the year we got to the cup final and we played at Twickenham, which was pretty special really. We also finished fifth in the league", he says.

As far as being made captain is concerned, Jos tells me it was 'a great honour' but he didn't feel that different from when he led the team out for the first time. He was greeted with the same enthusiastic applause which greets the players week in, week out at Heywood Road.

What are his hopes for the future of the club and for Jos Baxendell?

"We've got a new backer so hopefully things will start going in the right direction. On a personal level, to re-discover some form again and play well in a winning team".

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.