They say revenge is a dish best served cold.

And judging by the faces of most of the Sale fans trudging into a chilly Stockport night after Friday’s match, ‘they’ might just be right.

Twice in as many seasons we had seen Barry Everitt give London Irish victory at Edgeley Park with the last kick of the game. Twice we had wondered just how the Exiles had made the journey back down Ms 6 and 1 with a triumph to toast.

Yet this time it was different. And how.

Regular readers will remember the omens before the Newcastle game did not look good, with Jonny Wilkinson spotted slotting kick after kick. Yet his failure to land THAT last-gasp conversion suggested the omens aren’t all they’re cracked up to be.

So the first thought in my head as ‘Larry’ Larrechea missed touch by a good 10 metres then screwed a drop-goal attempt horribly wide as he left the field after the warm-up was that he was due another great game in front of the EP crowd.

And within five minutes Mallinder Mk II had proved that was definitely to be the case as he pulled off an audacious piece of play that set up the first try of the night.

Having gathered the ball out wide, Larry dinked a kick over the first line of the London Irish defence and ran to collect it himself before feeding Valentin Courrent. He in turn quickly shipped it on to Jason Robinson and his electric pace left the Irish cover trailing in his wake.

Charlie slotted the conversion and with six minutes on the clock (or should that be 34 minutes remaining on the ‘countdown clock’) it was Sale 7 Irish 0.

That scoreline – allied to a spell of early forward dominance from the Sale pack – was the cue for Irish frustration to boil over, and Magne and Sheridan took the opportunity to ‘exchange pleasantries’ soon after, drawing a rebuke from referee Debney.

Yet despite dominating both possession and territory, there were few clear-cut chances being created and the Sale line-out – as it had at Gloucester a week previously – misfired all too often to hand Irish a foothold.

Ironically, though, the first line-out that went against Bruno’s throw resulted in a Sale penalty, yet Charlie failed to slot it over from a difficult angle.

Everitt made no such mistake five minutes later, though, to make the difference only four points, scant reward for a first quarter in which the Sharks had been dominant.

Scenting their advantage up front, the Sale pack began to turn the screw both at scrumtime and in the loose, and a huge spell of pressure – which brought the Cheadle Enders to their feet in the run-up to half-time – should really have delivered a try. As it was, the Irish held firm and we had to be content with a penalty from Charlie that made the half-time score 10-3.

The dominance continued in the early stages of the second half as Bruno and Sea Bass took it upon themselves to rip apart the Irish defensive line with huge surges from a line-out, although it eventually came to nothing as Sea Bass knocked on.

Their efforts fired up their fellow forwards, though, and soon after they forced the Irish front row backwards and upwards not for the first time at the scrum, with Charlie banging the subsequent penalty into touch deep into Exiles territory. But the line-out gremlins returned as Chris Jones knocked on trying to take it on the move.

Another huge drive at the scrum saw the ball come back on the Sale side, though, and Courrent was quickly there to flick it out towards Charlie. He plucked a poor pass off his bootlaces and shipped it onto Mark Taylor, who combined well with Elvis outside him – the first real sign of a blossoming understanding between our fledgling centre partnership – to open the gap for Larry to power over for a well-worked try.

Charlie missed the conversion attempt – and we immediately gifted Irish the chance to get back into the game by offending at the restart. Everitt found touch and from the line-out replacement Rob Hardwick crashed over for Irish, yet his effort was chalked off for a clear double movement as he bounced over the tryline.

His work done by being in the right place at the right time to finish off our try, Larry was withdrawn from the fray to be replaced by the impressive ‘Raspberry’ Ripol. The Frenchman, growing in stature with every appearance, seemed to be carrying some sort of muscular injury, later confirmed to be a sore hamstring by PSA.

The now usual raft of replacements around the hour mark killed the flow of the game, yet it was one of the Irish subs who opened it up again by throwing a suicidal pass straight to man of the match Sea Bass, who needed no second invitation to power over under the posts, presenting Charlie with an easy conversion.

So with victory sealed – at 22-3 there was no chance of an Irish side that DOR Brian Smith was clearly disappointed with getting anything out of this one – there was just one thing the fans and even, one suspected, the players wanted to see.

Having done it six times in his last six league matches (and 13 times in his previous nine games in all competitions), Quates needed to touch down to break Steve Hanley’s Premiership record for tries in successive matches. Yet as the clock ticked on he looked as cold as the supporters, isolated out on his wing seeing little ball.

Yet Charlie wasn’t about to give up on his old mate, and when he looped a lovely pass out to his fellow Lion he, Quates, the fans and probably even the Irish defence knew that history was in the making as he raced over for the crucial fourth try of the night.

Charlie converted, the final whistle went soon after and all the pain inflicted by the boot of Everitt in years gone by had been forgotten thanks to a 29-3 victory.

There is still work to do, particularly at the line-out, as PSA himself admitted after the match and we will certainly face stiffer challenges this season than a London Irish side that never really got going but after the agony of Kingsholm, a victory was vital, a five-pointer the icing on the cake.

So mission accomplished. Now for the London branch…

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