Well, open, running rugby it was not. Rather, two aggressive and determined defences dominated a close-fought game. The first quarter passed with both sides sizing each other up, and a little bit of nastiness here and there. Living up to their pantomime villain reputations, Tigers conceded two kickable penalties to Sale's one, giving us an early lead. Both sides then showed a bit more ambition but nothing quite clicked, with Tigers making a break from a mucked-up Sale lineout, Wiggy kicking straight into touch, and then things degenerated into anarchy. Andy Goode sent a long pass out to.....nobody and Tigers hacked the ball into touch on the full. Sale took a quick lineout, kept possession for several phases, then Oriol Ripol, running almost in circles, chucked a wild pass.

The forwards were clearly fed up of tracking aimlessly round the park and imposed some order. There was a series of scrums, but neither side could create anything from them, although Tigers chipped ahead and all Julien Laharrague could do was take the tackle, conceding an attacking lineout to Tigers. Tigers can't make anything of it though, conceding a penalty, but Charlie misses touch, Tigers kick long and Laharrague gathers the ball in his own 22 and makes a lovely break to half way. Tigers concede a penalty but McAlister puts it wide. Sale keep Tigers under pressure- Chabal gathers the ball, McAlister makes a break and chips through and it looks like we have a try. But no, the attacker was held up over the line. We win a penalty from the 5 metre scrum to extend the lead to 9-3 at 35 minutes. Tigers miss a penalty kick at goal and it looks like we'll go in for half time with a reasonable lead so I start digging in my bag for the mince pies.

Then, into injury time, Charlie chips over the Tigers defence, Lee Thomas makes a break and feeds a full speed Chabal. We work the ball through several phases, tie the Tigers defence in knots and create a 3-on-1 overlap on the left to put Lamont over. One of my best Christmas presents this year will be Tom Varndell's helpless shrug as Martin Corry yells at him. Even from 70 yards away, his body language clearly says "There were three of them, what the **** was I meant to do?". But a Tiger is never more dangerous than when it's had its tail twisted, and Sale minds are perhaps on a warm dressing room and a 14-3 lead. Leicester have a scrum and, with some slick handling, put Johne Murphy over on the left. 14-8 at half time is a bit less clever.

Leicester start the second half well but can't crack our defence, so make an unsuccessful drop goal attempt, but then win a penalty which goes over. Both sides then try to be more creative but nothing quite works. Sale win two penalties in rapid succession and put both in the corner in an unsuccessful effort to build a decent lead. Tigers then miss another penalty and, on the hour, Sale change both second rows, giving us our first look at Brent Cockbain in a Sale shirt. We then have to bring Magnus Lund off, groggy after stopping a full tilt Martin Corry and our replacement openside is.... Neil Briggs???? With almost 20 minutes to go, and given the quality of the opposition, I start to worry.

Tigers keep the pressure on and Goode kicks a penalty from half way to bring the scores level, but Charlie replies almost immediately to give us a lead again. Tigers work the ball down their left and almost cross for a try. We have the scrum, but it all goes horribly wrong and Tigers start an attritional period of scrummaging just a few metres out. Eventually they are awarded a penalty but it comes back off the left hand post. The clock is running down now but the Tigers keep the pressure on. Goode sends up a high kick but Laharrague takes it beautifully at speed then, a minute later, a quickly taken mark from Tigers gives Laharrague another chance and he runs it back and slips the ball to Mark Cueto, on for Rory Lamont. Cueto uses his ramrod handoff on Tom Varndell, who clings on and eventually drags him down. McAlister attempts a drop goal and the game degenerates into a tennis match. Luke McAlister gets a grip on it, hurtling back to gather a loose ball and turning hard to give us some momentum. Finally, we win a penalty which McAlister puts over from 40 metres out. We have a 20-14 lead and the Tigers last efforts come to nothing.

All in all, a solid win in an error-riddled game. I'm sure there will be those who say we were the less poor of two poor sides, but I actually think the errors reflected the intense pressure that both defences applied. It was tense, edge of the seat stuff and I hope is a sign of good things to come- last year's Sale would not have won that game. Luke McAlister deserved his man of the match award, and I think there has to be an honourable mention for Neil Briggs, who filled in so admirably for Magnus.

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