Ok hands up everyone whose surprised by this scoreline? No-one? Well no Saints fans anyway. This game typifies life as a follower of Northampton Saints Rugby Football Club. They can't beat everyone! They can lose to anyone!!!

The team that started the match like Hats on Wheels were Sharks as they had a storming first ten minutes, in contrast the Saints should all have been wearing the jesters hats seen around the ground as catches were dropped, kicks sliced and lineouts messed up. On four minutes Sale crossed the saints line through Going, clearly their best back yesterday. It all looked too easy, quick ball from Redpath put the monstrous try machine, Hanley, through a midfield hole, more quick ball was whipped wide and Going had a stroll in. Luckily for Saints, Sharks had 'hoisted themselves by their own petard' and play was brought back and Saints given a penalty for stamping. This decision disgusted the Sky 'Saleophile' commentary team but more on that later.

More clowning around from Saints saw the penalty miss touch and Sale run back at them. Redpath did his best Dawson impression with a break up the middle and excellent passing saw Hanley steaming for the corner with only the diminutive Oriol Ripol in his way. As Saints fans looked on in despair through their fingers Raspberry re-inacted David and Goliath to force Hanley into touch. Who was worried about the little Spaniard's tackling?

This sparked Saints into life. Good continuity saw Cohen getting good ball into the Sale half. His stop, check and go was too good for Going and Saints powered into the Sharks 22. Wally tapped and went from a kickable penalty which inevitably ended up with Sharks clearing their lines through the effortless boot of jason Robinson. His kicking from hand was exceptional all afternoon but thankfully for the Saints all the work on punting seems to have diminished his running threat.

At the next Saints attack Redpath reads Brooks inside ball and intercepts only to knock on with no defenders in his path. Saints had played more 'get out of jail free' cards than you get in a monopoly box and bizarrely after 18 minutes it was 0-0 when it could easily have been 21-0 to Sharks.

Another powerful driving maul took Saints into the Sale 22, Connors crossed the line but was held up. From the 5 metre scrum Fox is driven over the line only to be held up again, unfortunately the game didn't change to gridiron until the second half so another 5 metre scrum was called. From this scrum saints took the ball right but were short of the line. dawson spins left as the ball goes through Brooks and Leslie to Wally who kept a straight running line to give Leslie the scoring pass. Reihana converts and Saints lead 7-0.

From the restart Saints really try mixing it up and get to half way where baxendall intercepts Leslie's inside ball. Luckily Hodgson's replacement doesn't have his pace and Beal gets past the hand-off to make the tackle.

And again a powerful drive led by the 'jump starting' Matt Lord releases ball for Brooks, Reihana and Cohen to enter the Sharks 22. Pountney tidies up and Saints are awarded a scrum 10 metres from the goal line. Blowers picks up from the base and then simple passing and good running lines put Cohen in for what looked like an easy score. Reihana converts again and its 14-0 after 28 minutes.

The end of the first half was typical of the game in general. Sharks heralded widely as the Champagne Rugby team of the Premiership were being undone by Northampton's no nonsense approach. John Smiths getting the better of  Dom Perignon. Saints came close to scoring again but settled for a Reihana penalty attempt that missed. One lady sale supporter shouted 'come on Sale' as Reihana shaped to kick the response from the Tetley's stand probably kept her from repeating the error! Half time 14-0.

Telling statistics from half time were that Sale had made 57 tackles to Saints 19 and had missed 8 to Saints 1. Saints had the lions share of possession at 79% and most pleasingly given scrum and lineout problems of recent weeks Saints had only lost 1 set piece possession.

To the half time debate.  Moments before the saints first try Dawson had stamped at the ball to free it from Titterall's grasp and again the Sky team wittered on about inconsistent refereeing. Here is my perspective after watching the video twice; Fox was indeed on the wrong side and should have been penalised for not rolling away, however the ball was clearly visible by his head (Stuart, Dewi and Miles, it's the white oval thing with Gilbert in big letters on the panels) Pinkerton and Scofield piled boots into Fox a yard from the ball just before Redpath picked it up and passed it out unhindered. That's not rucking it's stamping on a player on the floor. However from the inconclusive camera angle it looks as though Titterall is preventing release of the ball at the back of a ruck. Dawson kicks once at the floor (you can't tell if he makes contact with anything) and hey presto the ball pops out. In my view that's called rucking for the ball.

Back to the rugby. Budgen replaced Morris at half time and made an immediate impact. He was pinged for obstruction at the kick off! Sale kicked the corner but as was the way throughout the afternoon the catch and drive was ineffective against a committed saints tight five. Mr Spreadbury appeared to have abandoned the 'use it or lose it' law. Saints eventually steal the ball and march up field. Good continuity sees saints gain an overlap going into the left corner. Unfortunately Budgen plays outside centre with all the prop attributes of yesteryear and Cohen is left screaming for the ball with the line begging.

Saints first chance of points came on 46 minutes but Reihana pulled his penalty attempt to the left.

The next attack saw the real threat of the Sharks. Graeme Bond made huge yardage through the Saints defence only to offload to Robinson a bit late. He fed Yates and the pacey prop barrelled on to within a yard of the Saints goal line. Sharks were awarded the penalty and the most attractive side in English rugby kicked the penalty! many Saints fans in the South stand are convinced that this kick missed!!! 14-3

Saints started flinging the ball around a bit too much and Sale started to catch them behind the gain line despite goo driving efforts from Budgen. Then came my moment of the match as Ripol ran the ball at his supposed nemesis Hanley. The Saints pint sized winger bounced off of the Sharks giants tackle and scampered on whist the former England man flopped unceremoniously to the floor. Two nil to Oriol!

Sharks then became the masters of their own destruction as another good break from Going took them deep into Saints territory. Baxendall chipped through but was obstructed. Spreadbury awarded the penalty but then had to reverse it as England potential Jones couldn't resist a cheap shot at Dawson.

However Saints were making mistakes of their own and gifted the ball back to Sale. Baxendall gave Hanley a pass that would make Dan marino proud, he then fed Titterall and to the crowd's disbelief Spreadbury awarded a try! The Gordon terrace gave Spreadbury the full treatment as it went through it's full repertoire of "You don't know what you're doing," "are you Lander in disguise," and "My eyes are dim!" Unfortunately the booing hadn't subsided in time for Baxedall's successful conversion. 14-10 after 59 minutes.

Ripol left the field to be replaced by Jorgenson and Reihana moved to wing to accommodate the popular Australian. Individual work from that wing saw Bruce's chip and chase that ended with the former All Black bundling Robinson into touch in his own 22. From the catch and drive Sharks are penalised and Reihana kicks the penalty. 17-10 62 minutes.

From the restart Baxendall kicks out on the full giving Saints a scrum on half way. The ball is moved quickly to Jorgenson who sprints own the wing, with only Going to beat he chips but the Sharks full back takes the ball and goes to touch. A quick throw in sees Saints pile forward. From the ruck Dawson passes out to Brooks whose clever line and reverse puts leslie through a gaping hole for his second try of the afternoon. Reihana converts and it's a healthier 24-10 on 65 minutes.

The Sharks response speaks volumes of the quality of the Cheshire side. A huge drive takes them deep into Saints 22 but Saints win the scrum, Dawson clears but only as far as Hanley. Sale run the ball back and are awarded a penalty on the 22. Baxendall taps and goes and feeds Bond who powers through Fox to score the try. Baxendall converts and the gap is closed to a score once more. 24-17 after 68 minutes.

More Sharks stupidity (how many petards would they be hoisted by?) saw handbags between Mattie Stewart and Phil Davies. To be fair it looks like sarge started it. However the offence by Davies was more obvious and arguably more serious as he picked Stewart up and dumped him on the head. Davies went to the bin and dawson stepped up to kick the penalty and extend the saints lead. If anyone doubted the nature of Davies offence can I suggest you lip read his comments from the side line. He was clearly still boiling with intent.

The final 10 minutes degenerated a touch as the usual raft of replacements came and went. I'm sure the Saints changed their entire front row twice bringing back players who already had been replaced. Sharks kept going but their attacks became blunt as the saints defence stepped up a gear and repeatedly forced the visitors back. This is best illustrated when in injury time Robinson is gang tackled behind the gain line by three Saints. To me this was more satisfying than the tries it spoke of committment easily questioned last week.

The man of the match from Sky sports was Wally. Fair comment he was a threat all amtch nd his line out throwing was beter than usual. In the ground the award went to John Leslie, again very fair as his two tries were top class. The Wolverton masif behind me plumped for Matt Lord and again I think this is a good shout as he won tonnes of ball and gave the drives some very much needed 'go forward'. My personal choice would be Oriol Ripol just for proving the doubters wrong, perhaps next time people will wonder if putting hanley against him is a wise move. The COYSDC online vote will be very interesting this week.

So what have we learned? Never write off the Saints! But don't bet your house on them either!!! It's still fun following the most inconsistent team in England because the good times outweigh the bad. So onto Quins next week and good fortune prevailing top four is still realistic and top three mathematically possible. All it needs is two five pointers and favours from around the Premiership!