To celebrate the Edgeley Park debut of our new signings from north of the border we arranged some very cold weather and a Simpsons-style Scotchtoberfest. However, no kilts were in evidence, luckily. The beer tent was warm and busy; the BBC TV camera caused a bit of a stir in the middle of it all; a few fez-boys tucked into two pint pots of lager. By all accounts the performance against Gloucester had been rather less than what we would like; could the boys turn it around tonight? There was tension in the air.

It was a good, positive start for Sale with plenty of go-forward and it led pretty soon to a first penalty attempt. Charlie comfortably hoisted it through the middle of the sticks and we were off. As became the pattern for the evening, we sustained some strong attacking from Saracens, with their centres and flankers punching holes with good service from 9 and 10, and only some dogged defending (Charlie putting in some excellent work here) keeping them out. Saracens were also apt to make a number of mistakes, gifting us the ball. In this spirit, Richard Haughton, sporting a splendid afro at full back, messed up a couple of high balls, though he did make some good runs, as you might expect, and charged down a sloppy clearance which almost led to a try in the second half.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back in the first half action, Sale’s attacking won another penalty and Charlie dutifully knocked it over to give us a 6 – 0 lead. Sarries then piled on a lot of pressure, pushing hard for the line. The Sale lineout wasn’t working well, too much ball was just being slapped back to no one in particular, and the opposition made the most of it (though referee Small eventually pinged Sarries on their third crooked throw). Glen Jackson kicked a straightforward penalty to trim the gap (after a bit of Wilkinson-esque fussing over his preferred ball) and the southerners carried on coming. Sale’s scrum wasn’t quite up to spec and a five metre drive led to a try for the man we used to call Lector, Kevin Yates, to give them the lead; Jackson banked the extras.

We spoiled a couple of good chances; Chris Jones pounced on a loose ball in our half, broke away and off-loaded to Ripol who ran out of room at the Sarries end and was bundled into touch. On the other wing a big overlap came to nothing when Ben Foden was unable to hold onto the ball. We worried that these missed opportunities would come back to haunt us but another good passage of ball-in-hand found the holes in the Saracens defence and Wiggy dashed over the line for our first try. John next to me complained that he should have run further in towards the posts but Charlie’s radar was spot on and he hoofed another ball over.

Not to be outdone, Sarries launched another attack and spread the ball left and right, leaving Sale gasping. The inevitable try came from a fast-moving number 6; the cover tackle, looking rather like a hedgehog intent on stopping a juggernaut, barely slowed his stride. Jackson converted and at half time it was Sale 13 Saracens 17.

There was more of the same in the second half. Our lineout and scrum didn’t improve much, not helped by Lionel Faure limping off with an ankle problem and Stu Turner having to switch to loosehead. Nevertheless, Sale showed some ambition in keeping the ball in hand and shifting it around. The endeavour eventually paid off and it was new boy Rory Lamont, tackling and running well, who cut through to make his debut try in the corner. The Vernon crowd gave him a deserved ovation, the applause flowing along the stand as he wandered back to position. Charlie kept up his perfect kicking display, no position on the field seeming to faze him.

Sarries drew level with a penalty but the Sale boys continued to charge towards the Saracens line. The pressure told – Ripol burst through the middle with just Haughton to beat; you would have backed our much missed Robbo to round him, but Rips had to off-load to Lee Thomas (who had earlier missed an ambitious penalty from two metres inside the Sale half) to get the ball over the line. Easy conversion under the sticks!

Jackson dropped a goal to narrow the gap and then, after some clever running, put them ahead with a try under the Sale posts. He waited till a worryingly injured Sarries player had recovered (who went off dizzily, shortly after the restart) before knocking over the simple conversion. Time for the boys to dig deep and they did so magnificently – finally one of Ben Foden’s dangerous jinking runs got him a try in the corner, judiciously sliding his way over the whitewash, perhaps having made a note of Ripol’s failure to cross in the first half. Charlie made no mistake with the kick, adding a little bow to the gift of a bonus point.

At 34 – 30 with only five minutes remaining on the clock, Sarries had no choice but to go for the try. Sale’s defence was mighty, scrambling and improvising any way of halting the advance. Unsurprisingly we were penalised and things got more nervous. Jackson lined up to kick for the corner and, in his first mistake of the night, hoofed it right over the in-goal area. We cheered like mad as everyone marched back for the scrum. Sarries, with their blood up, stuck into the Sale forwards and won themselves the next put in. But the reset scrums were eating hungrily into the remaining time and, though Saracens got the ball out, good Sale pressure led to another knock-on. The whistle went and we were home and dry. It was time to celebrate by eating spicy sub-continental Asian food and drinking the fermented juice of grapes.

Altogether it seemed like an advance on the Wasps game. Played in a similar style with plenty of passing and a variety of kicking options, we managed to put away more of the opportunities we created. The set piece is still causing concern but we have a lot of players coming back from the World Cup into that area and perhaps the fight for places will help improve things. Now if only we can keep this form up in away fixtures too.

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