A backs-to -the wall defensive effort in the second half and a semi-final place in the LV beckons.

LV= Cup Round 3 Sale Sharks v Northampton Saints

Friday 29th January 2010 Edgeley Park

KO 19:45

I was amazed to complete the motorway journey from Kent without delays. In the past I've missed first halves at Sale and once abandoned the trip to watch the game on TV in pub somewhere in Cheshire....the locals were amused at my reactions to the inevitable defeat. A few other hardly Saints souls had nipped off work early and Chris Hoddle was happy to be at a "home" game for him. The evening weather was chilly but at least the ploughed field of a pitch wasn't wet; we might see some decent rugby.

That decent rugby didn't take long to surface. As he did all night, Joe Ansbro ran hard at the lightweight Sale midfield and put Chris Mayor in for a try against his old team. Myler's conversion, 7 nil after 4 minutes. I'd have missed this on some previous visits. Sale lost a prop a minute later and the Saints scrum looked dominant even with Tiny left on the bench. There's no need to elaborate on this week's events. He looked a forlorn figure all evening except for one minute of glory....details to follow.

14 minutes gone and a Myler penalty put us 10 points up. The effort and organisation were both there. Sale didn't seem to have started. Nacho was penalised for not rolling way, it's tricky at his age. Strangely Sale, through Charlie Hodgson, declined the points and kicked for the corner; they did this several times in the evening. Has no-one told them that this Saints team doesn't get driven over from 5 metre line-outs ? Well, not often. By declining kicks Sale set themselves the task of scoring three tries to win. Has no-one told them that this Saints side doesn't concede 3 tries in a game? Well not often.

Some unexpected things happened. Nacho kicked a long grubber accurately into Sale territory and

 Mr Nigel Owens seemed much more generous to the Saints than in Perpignan with one very wayward line-out throw going unpunished. Some things don't change. Wuss-bound Besty got a yellow. It was so far off the ball that Mr Owens didn't see it, nor did I but I saw the consequences...a flattened Chris Jones needing attention. Some sections of the largely subdued crowd thought a red card would have been more appropriate and let Besty know as he warmed up ten minutes later.

From a dominant position, one unnecessary incident (albeit from a man who otherwise was outstanding) led to ten minutes of desperate defence. Chris Ashton made Sale waste an overlap, Mark Easter somehow stole a ball under opposition noses, Sale knocked on near the line and half time arrived.

Apparently Sale got a half time rocket but it misfired as Digger scored a super try, stepping off his left foot several times to land by the posts. Easy conversion, 17-0, thank you very much. Hoddle to my left started talking about bonus points, a tad premature I'm afraid. Wigglesworth, due to join up with Tiny next year (I can't bring myself to mention the destination), and Hodgson started to fire a wave of attacks and the later got over before adding the extras. The Saints came straight, penalty, Myler, 20-7.

Cue substitutions. We're starting to look a bit thin on depth in the front five. Vickerman is still stuck in his books with no word of emergence and Darren Morris is presumably working off some extra poundage with the Hood. Bodies have to be saved for future battles.  Roger Wilson was tried in the second row when Nacho came off and a heavily blowing Brian Mujati was replaced by young (very young) Alex Waller. Andy Long and Owen Giles got debuts late on . Sale sensed a chance.

We had a prolonged period of Sale pressure and our excellent defence held. Finally the scrum started to go backwards, Koyamaibole charged off from number eight, 20-14. Sale tried to rumble over from a lineout and knocked on. Jim played his trump card, Tiny on for one minute instead of the youngster. The scrum held, Sale were penalised, one more play and game over. Top of the group with a game to go.

Bring on the Tigers.

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