Our wins against Newport and Perpignan, though by the relatively small scores of 10-6 and 19-14, have been as spectacular as they were unexpected. A defence transformed from that seen earlier in the month against Leicester and Wasps perfectly marshalled by Matt Burke has seen us in with a realistic chance of qualifying for the knock-out stage. And that defence will be very much needed this week at Sale, where in our four Premiership defeats there have been by scorelines of 45-17, 37-11, 38-3 and 41-16, with a 27-13 victory intermingled.

Unfortunately, we will be without Colin Charvis, who had a stormer at Newport, as he will play for Wales on Saturday, but Cory Harris should make his debut at openside. Another problem area could be at lock, where Luke Gross is suspended and Craig Hamilton could be out with flu. This supporter hopes we will keep Mike McCarthy in the back row where he has been fantastic this year, possibly starting with Andy Buist or Geoff Parling.

In Europe over the last two weekends, Sale defeated Catania 31-22 in Sicily before finishing the job 50-3 at Edgeley Park on Sunday. Their league form has been equally impressive; six victories so far including wins over Leicester at home on the opening day and away at Wasps and Northampton, and the Sharks lie second in the table only a point behind Leicester. Their only reverse was on October 8th at home to London Irish 17-16. Surprisingly for a side with a back three of Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto and Steve Hanley, Sale have only gained one try bonus point, from a 57-3 destruction of Worcester, but they have done so in this fixture in the last three seasons.

Nobody will need reminding of our last but one meeting with Sale, at Twickenham in April in the Powergen Cup Final when we won a nail biting match 37-33. Only six of our starting line-up against Perpignan started the final (May, Noon, Stephenson, Walder, Peel and Grimes), though multiple were replacements and used. However, another important match amongst our past encounters was the last one at Heywood Road before Sale’s move to Stockport last season. It was a bitter cold Friday night in south Manchester, January 3rd 2003. Rock bottom of the league and going into a 4 week Premiership break, we needed vital points after losing 20-0 at London Irish on the preceding Sunday.

Our XV that night was J Noon, L Botham 1P, T May, M Mayerhofler (J Shaw 60), M Stephenson, M Wilkinson, H Charlton, M Ward, J Christian (N Makin 6), M Hurter, H Vyvyan ©, S Grimes, J Dunbar (E Taione 70), A Mower and C Newby. We weren’t in a terrible position, 6-3 down, going into first half injury time, but a sudden blitz including two tries Sale went in 21-3 at the break! In the second half we battered the home line but were just unable to score, while another three tries from Sale made the final result 38-3! During a sleepless night, I realised that we needed a real miracle to avoid relegation. Of course, that miracle did come in the form of Mark Andrews’ arrival and the resurgence of Mark Mayerhofler, Andrew Mower, Hugh Vyvyan and Jonny Wilkinson.

You need to hit rock bottom before you can pick yourself up. That night, at a sold-out Heywood Road, we hit the bottom, and with a win over Harlequins four weeks later we began to rise again.

Our complete record v Sale in competitive games is:

29/9/73 North Road RFU Cup Preliminary Round W18-6

3/4/76 Heywood Road John Player Cup SF W12-3

11/3/89 Heywood Road Courage League Division 2 L15-23

10/3/90 Percy Park (H) Courage League Division 2 W22-18

22/9/1990 Kingston Park Courage League Division 2 W7-6

16/11/1991 Heywood Road Courage League Division 2 L15-19

26/9/1992 Kingston Park Courage League Division 2 W7-3

18/10/97 Heywood Road Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 W33-26

10/3/98 Kingston Park Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 W23-18

20/12/98 Kingston Park Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 W30-15

23/1/99 Heywood Road Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 W28-20

29/12/99 Kingston Park Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 W12-6

6/5/00 Heywood Road Allied Dunbar Premiership 1 L17-45

2/9/00 Heywood Road Zurich Premiership W27-13

6/1/01 Kingston Park Tetley’s Bitter Cup SF W37-25

11/3/01 Kingston Park Zurich Premiership W48-24

8/9/01 Heywood Road Zurich Premiership L11-37

31/3/02 Kingston Park Zurich Premiership W30-10

27/10/02 Kingston Park Zurich Premiership W31-20

3/1/03 Heywood Road Zurich Premiership L3-38

21/9/03 Kingston Park Zurich Premiership W9-8

17/4/04 Twickenham Powergen Cup Final W37-33

23/4/04 Edgeley Park Zurich Premiership L16-41

The current league table sees us in fifth position with 16 points, but we are seven points behind Wasps in fourth. We really need to use the Heineken Cup as a springboard to put a run together in the next few weeks so as not to get left behind by the front-runners. Because, as good as it is to see success in Europe, the league remains the bread and butter and through it will we most likely qualify for the European Cup again next year. Therefore a win against Sale for us, still the Bayern Munich of rugby (as this game is another we’ve sold out) is vital to keep our confidence up.

Teams:-

Falcons

Newcastle Falcons team to face Sale Sharks:

15 Matthew Burke
14 Tom May
13 Mathew Tait
12 Jamie Noon
11 Michael Stephenson
10 Dave Walder
9 James Grindal

1 Ian Peel (captain)
2 Andy Long
3 Micky Ward
4 Craig Hamilton
5 Stuart Grimes
6 Mike McCarthy
7 Cory Harris
8 Phil Dowson

16 James Isaacson
17 Matt Thompson
18 Andy Buist
19 Semo Sititi
20 Mark Wilkinson
21 Hall Charlton
22 Epi Taione

Sale:-

Jason Robinson (captain), Mark Cueto, Jos Baxendell, Robert Todd, Chris Mayor, Charlie Hodgson, Bryan Redpath, Andrew Sheridan, Andy Titterrell, Stuart Turner, Chris Jones, Dean Schofield, Jason White, Magnus Lund, Sebastien Chabal

Replacements From: Barry Stewart, Sebastien Bruno,Pierre Caillet, Chris Day, Peter Anglesea, Mike Hercus, James Moore, Sililo Martens, Chris Rhys Jones

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