The task was to win with a bonus point and to hope that the other results went our way.  The first part of this was achieved by a massive collective effort from the players but in the end it was in vain and some end-of-season disinterest from a few other clubs did us no favours.

Sale set out their stall early in the game, running the ball back rather than kicking and risking a few dodgy off-loads to keep the ball alive.  Northampton got the first chance for points, however, with a penalty after 7 minutes.  Stephen Myler, taking an almost Luveniyali-esque length of time to tee his shot up, missed anyway.  After 12 minutes Sale won a penalty in the Northampton half and went for touch: a clear signal of intent.  It came to nothing but another penalty on 20 minutes went to touch again, this time on the right hand side.  From the lineout repeated drives pushed the Midlanders back until El Capitan Lobbe dived through a couple of defenders to score the first try.  Charlie missed the conversion from out wide but that hardly mattered in the circumstances – it was four tries or nothing.

Despite gaining the upper hand in the scrums and the breakdown, some handling errors cost Sale field position.  Northampton slotted a 45m penalty to bring the score to 5 – 3 and then, after 31 minutes, Neil Best scored a try under the posts, converted by Myler to make it 5 – 10.  The score had come about after a lost lineout in the Sale half and a break by the strong running Sean Lamont.  There was to be no more scoring in the half but there was plenty of excitement as each team ran the ball.  The home fans were given something to cheer about when Chris Ashton was sin-binned for preventing a quick lineout (a good shot by Nick McLeod to make sure he hit the man in the illegal position).

A bright start to the second half from Sale went awry and gave Northampton another penalty shot.  Again Myler, who had been inconsistent throughout the season, was wide.  Sale’s upping of the tempo paid off shortly afterwards, on 53 minutes, with Lobbe taking a quick tap penalty and breaking down the middle of the field.  An energetic series of rucks put the visitors in trouble and Eifion Roberts punished them by barging his way over the try line.  Again Charlie missed the conversion and the score was level on 10 a piece.

With the wind in their sails (ahem) the boys in blue pressed forwards again and a superb passage of play with great control and off-loading of the ball saw the magnificent Dean Schofield, in athletic form all day, breeze through for the third try.  Charlie made the easy kick and at 57 minutes we were 17 – 10 up.  In the McAfee stand we chanted Deano’s name as he came back for the kick-off and he gave us a big grin and thumbs up.  One more try to go.

Northampton weren’t finished yet and regained some ground three minutes later by slotting a penalty.  They were upping their game in return and seemed to have decided that they might as well try to win.  The effort led to mistakes and a loose ball was scooped up by Neil Briggs who scampered off with 70m to go.  With a defender quickly closing in he shipped the ball out to Selorm Kuadey who sped off up field.  He was hauled down around 20m out but quick recycling gave Mathew Tait the ball in midfield.  He hit the gas and found himself with just Ben Foden, wearing 9 but by then at 15, to beat.  Our Spud arced round him on the afterburners in a way that must have gladdened our incoming head coach’s heart and the fourth try was in the bag with eight minutes to go.  The conversion hardly mattered but Charlie popped it over and it was 24 – 13.

The dust storm on the sandy pitch continued to blow, with Northampton commanding the elements.  They wanted to have the last word and they did.  Lamont again found space.  Stu Turner’s covering tackle was never going to arrive in time and McLeod on his own stood little chance of stopping the big, fast-turning Scotsman.  The conversion went wide and the final score stood at 24 – 18.

It had been a terrific game – hard fought and fast moving.  Sale had put in a great effort as a unit but I’d single out Eifion as Man of the Match for his tireless performance.  His best moment, apart from the try, was being the first Sale player up the pitch in a position to stop a Northampton quick thrown-in.  Nice work for a prop!

Afterwards there was a bit of a party on the pitch as the non-playing players wandered on and the players’ crèche opened its doors (Chris Jones fitted a small child into the palm of his hand as he came round on the lap of honour).  The Sale fans warmly applauded our old mate Nacho and the ever-popular Barry Stewart was carried on the Saints team’s shoulders in front of the Cheadle End.

And so it’s the end of an era, the French Revolution as CheadleEnder called it.  We’ve come from being strugglers to being winners, consistently in the mix at the end of the season.  So we didn’t make it this time.  There’s still next year.  Vive la republique de Sale!

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