Sale- well, we are really looking into the abyss now. Although we have put out a few heavily rotated sides for difficult away games, we took a decent side to Gloucester. It really ought to have been good enough to pick up a losing bonus, and certainly shouldn’t have folded as it did. What the last two games have shown us is that going through the motions is not enough, so our season is boiling down to a catfight with the teams around us. With both Worcester and Falcons yet to visit Edgeley Park, though, we do have the chance to do some damage to our immediate rivals.

However, as we know only too well, Leeds have now found a bit of form and a lot of team spirit, and a few repeats of their disciplined performance against us will see them picking up some more scalps before the end of the season. Wasps today is certainly winnable for them, and, dear me, it rankles to hope that Wasps win and do us a favour. For Leeds, Worcester at Headingley in late April looks like a biggie, and you can see Leeds winning two or even three of their remaining home games.

Worcester also seem to be finding form and are making a declaration of intent for next year by signing the likes of Andy Goode. They do have a tough run in to the end of the season, with their remaining home games against Tigers, Irish, Wasps and Gloucester. But two of their away games are against us and Leeds, so they must fancy their chances of picking up points on their travels.

Falcons have a pretty tough set of games to finish off the season but they also have a small points cushion in the table. Their only bargain basement scrap is against us in late April but, while their current form isn’t great, it looks better than ours. I’d back them to survive, if perhaps only narrowly.

So the main thing we have in our favour is a marginally easier run-in than the competition. Our main problem is the apparent implosion of team spirit. The best Sale sides of this season, such as the one which battled to the end at Sarries, could win several of our remaining games; the one we’ve seen in the last two games probably wouldn’t win any. So we have to fix that, and fix it fast, and develop the mindset where we scrap for everything, in every game. We, the supporters, are outside the club, so we only see the symptoms and not the underlying problem, but it’s clear the problem is acute, and I think it’s both beyond Kingsley’s ability to solve it, and above JJ’s pay grade. It needs intervention from BK and it needs it quickly. So sorry, Corporal Jones, I am panicking right now. Oh, and please none of the “not a proper supporter stuff”- I am the proud, if worried, owner of a season ticket for the next two seasons, and I’ll be there, wherever we end up, and I won’t be looking for my money back either.

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