Q: Mark, what went through your mind when Staunton missed the penalty against Sale? 

ME: I still find it quite difficult to talk about but I’ll do my best. Relegation came down to lots and lots of very small things. If we’d won any one of our last four games we wouldn’t have been relegated – it’s going to sound like old war stories now because it’s gone. When I’m writing my book, which I will eventually, I’ll call it ‘four seconds to go’ – we were up at Northampton and winning all through the game, the clock had gone to 87, 88, maybe even 89 and you knew it had to be near the end. One of the Northampton guys was near the touchline, Mel Dean came in to clean him out and crack him into touch and he was so committed he dived over the top of him, the bloke stood up and the game kept going and Dippy hit the bloke and the ball went up in the air and George Harder caught it and was under the sticks, but the referee called it a knock on in the tackle, which was OK but it was a 50:50 call, he could easily have said the ball was loose in the tackle, it was a loose ball, we scored and that was the end of it. As he signalled ‘knock on, scrum, Northampton ball’ he looked at his watch. I can still remember Ace Tiatia jumping out of the line - we’d talked all week about Shane Drahm’s show and go – he ‘showed and go’ed’ and Ace jumped and the gap was there and it was all over, he was never going to miss that kick. After the game I went to the referee, I think it was Daivd Rose, and I asked him ‘just out of interest, I’ve got to know, how long was left on the clock?’ he said ‘39 minutes and 56 seconds.’ And that the title of my book – ‘four seconds to go’. 

You can always choose any number of things, it didn’t come down to just one kick, you could have gone all through the season and all sorts of different things could have happened. But it happened, we all came up a bit short, and everyone who was involved with it has just got to live with it.

I’ve been in the game a long time and I’ve won stuff, I’ve lost stuff, I’ve been promoted, I’ve been relegated, I’ve won trophies, I’ve lost finals, I’ve won finals, it’s just the way it is… but it’s not nice. 

But to get back to your question I felt sorry for him. I thought he kicked it beautifully, I wasn’t watching, there was no point in watching it, I’m on the side, so I looked at the North Stand, because you can nearly always tell when the kick goes over. When he kicked it the South Stand went up, I thought that’s good, and then the North Stand went up, and I thought that’s brilliant, and I was looking at the touch judge thinking out your ‘damned’ flag up! I am sure everyone in the ground will remember the terrible microsecond between the crowd going up and the touch judges’ flags not moving and thinking ‘he’s not going to give it’, and they were right - it did miss. Those are the margins, it’s so small.

In the seventh installment Evs and Deano talk about relegation and promotion and who they think is for the drop this season...

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