Well, we start positively enough. Matt Banahan takes Steve Haley in the air, then hits another Sale player high, and concedes a penalty. We go for the corner but Charlie takes a drop goal from the line-out. From the restart, we impose ourselves again and keep Bath under pressure with strong running from Steve Hanley and Ben Foden, then drives from Little Lobbe, Sherri and Seabass. We win a penalty, which Charlie kicks, then another, and we are 9-0 up after 14 minutes. We continue with some adventurous back play but then Bath get a grip and run at us, fast and direct, to win a penalty, which Shaun Byrne kicks. 9-3 after 20 minutes.

There is then a scrappy spell, with neither side really getting the advantage, but Bath start to look dangerous and camp in the Sale half. However, they can’t really get closer than the 22, so they settle for an unsuccessful drop goal attempt. The Bath pressure continues, with multiple (I lost count at 11) phases but again, no real progress and another missed drop goal. They continue to have the upper hand and win a penalty in midfield, about 45 metres out, but that goes wide. Sale win a penalty from pressurising the Bath scrum, and Charlie kicks it. 12-3 and we seem to have got through a sticky patch. Then, Stan fields a Bath kick and runs it back, chips delicately over the defence at pace, gets a lovely bounce and draws the next defender before passing left to Chris Bell. He wrong-foots the full back and crosses for a try, which Charlie converts. 19-3 at half time looks pretty good.

The second half starts in much the same way. Bath troubles in the scrum give us another penalty but then Bath kick a penalty for the right corner, win the lineout and drive over for a try which they convert. 22-10 looks a bit less comfortable. There’s no score in the next 10 minutes, but Charlie makes a lovely break and flips a pass inside to….. nobody. Just on the hour, we kick yet another penalty from Bath’s scrum problems. The substitutions come thick and fast in this period, and we lose Charlie who seems shaken up after crashing into the pitch-side advertising boards.

In the last quarter hour, we seem to be more adventurous again. We pressurise Bath and then Laharrague makes a lovely break and chips ahead, stretching the Bath defence. We continue to run the ball at Bath, but the pressure ends when there is an eternal pileup on the left, and Bath win a penalty to relieve the pressure. At the end, one of the Bath players goes into the bin for a high tackle and we kick to the corner. Time is pretty much up, so all we have to do is win the lineout and that’s it. But, oh, no, we do it the hard way. We lose the lineout and Bath run out of defence, making 10, 20, 30 metres, but then they lose possession and we kick the ball into touch for a workmanlike victory.

Positives, quite a few- we showed a good deal of adventure in our back play. Several things didn’t come off, but nearly did, and some day it WILL all come together for us and we’ll wallop somebody. I felt our defence was good- twice Bath definitely had the upper hand but ended up taking the drop goal attempt, and that was not a poor Bath side. They had real pace and penetration in the back line. Negatives- missing the first 6 minutes of the game as pissed-up corporates milled around like sheep. If you can’t stop them being stupid and late, can you please at least provide stewards to get them to the right place? Official man of the match was Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe, but I think I would have gone for Steve Hanley. Yes- I know all about his defence but it seemed relatively secure tonight and that chip kick to make the try was just soooooo delicate.

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