Mike Brewer back in Scotland as Sale take on Glasgow

MIKE Brewer will make his first return to Scotland next month in a club capacity after it was confirmed his new side Sale will play Glasgow in a pre-season friendly.

After a pre-season trip to France, Glasgow will play Sale at Firhill on Friday, 20 August with a 7.30pm kick-off and then head south to take on Wasps at Adams Park on Saturday 28 August at 3pm. Brewer, a former All Blacks captain, was appointed Scotland's forwards coach to assist Frank Hadden in 2008, but when Hadden was replaced the following year Brewer lost out to Andy Robinson for the vacant post and joined the Fijian rugby union. As technical director he was asked to draw up a new long-term development plan and helped coach the team on a European tour last November.

However, he was keen on a return to full-time coaching and successfully applied for the Sale job in April, replacing Jason Robinson. The Sharks will kick-off their pre-season action with the JP Morgan Sevens at Twickenham on 23 July, play Newcastle in an Algarve tournament the following weekend and then face Clermont Auvergne, the new French champions, before heading to Firhill.

Brewer has been busy in the transfer market signing up Newcastle's under-20 fly-half Rob Miller, Wales cap Robin Sowden-Taylor and Fijian Apolosi Satala and this week added explosive Kiwi prop Karena Wihongi from Bourgoin and Samoan wing Mikaele Pesamino from Auckland.

Pesamino has been a consistent star performer in the IRB World Sevens Series over recent years and after helping Samoa to a first world title in May with a hat-trick in the Murrayfield final - to finish with a personal haul of 56 tries in eight tournaments - he was voted the IRB Sevens Player of the Year for 2009-10.