We started back in October with probably the toughest of our pool games- away to Toulouse, where we put out a young side and went down to a bonus point defeat. While we may have been well beaten, and you always got the feeling that Toulouse had another gear or two if they needed it, our relatively young and inexperienced side certainly didn’t disgrace themselves. The next weekend saw Cardiff Blues at Edgeley Park, where a stronger Sharks side got their noses in front around half time, and ended hanging on for the narrowest of wins. We then had a double-header against Quins, starting with a bonus point win away at the Stoop in which we got off to a flying start, and then spent the last half hour defending heroically. A week later, Quins came to Stockport and a solid performance saw us win in near-blizzard conditions. Then, in the last pair of pool games, we misfired badly at Cardiff in the last away game and, in spite of a brave performance, lost to a strong Toulouse side last weekend.

I think all this is quite instructive, because it lets us see how far our team has come in just a few months. Back in mid-October, we were just starting to move on from our early season obsession with kicking the ball, and a restructured squad was beginning to gel. We hadn’t really worked out this try-scoring thing and there was a lot of frustration around. By December, we were looking much more like a team and the bonus point win away to Quins was probably the high point of this campaign. The game away to Cardiff was probably the only game where the team we put out didn’t play to its potential.

In my view there are many more positives than negatives from this campaign. The team has clearly gelled and, while I doubt Toulouse lost sleep over their visit to Edgeley Park, we are certainly no pushover. Some of our younger, home-grown players have gained valuable big match experience in some very tough games and none of them has looked out of their depth, while some of the new signings have shown real class. For a fairly young, rebuilding side, that’s a very creditable performance.

Losing out on the consolation prize of an Amlin place doesn’t worry me at all. The Premiership looks tough this year and we are far from safe. If we’d sneaked into the Amlin, the glitter of silverware might have been irresistible, but also might have been a distraction. Consolidation in the GP and a Heineken place for next season will suit me just fine.

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