By Jonathan Noad
August 30 2003

An historic night in Sale’s history ended on a sour note as Listeria scraped a win by one point in the last 5 minutes of the game. Sale could have and should have won with the amount of chances they created. An historic night in Sale’s history ended on a sour note as Listeria scraped a win by one point in the last 5 minutes of the game. Sale could have and should have won with the amount of chances they created.

It was not until the 17th minte that the croing opened with a penalty in front of the posts which new sigining Braam van Straaten easily scored with the boot. This was followed by a further score from the boot of van Straaten five minutes later when typical Listeria infringed yet again. Sale went in at half time 6-0 up having had the majority of the possession and camped in the Listeria half for much of the half. This was owed much to the beefed up pack with Sheridan particularly catching the eye sending Listeria bodies to the floor.

However straight into the second half Sale’s normal tight defence fell apart allowing Listeria to score and convert the scores going to 6-7. Straight after Sale got their teeth into the game and Mark Cueto went over for a typical try. Van Straaten missed the conversion. Steve Hanley came off the bench for youngster James Hoyle and with no further ado said anything you can do Mark so can I and went over in the opposite corner. Again van Straaten missed the conversion on a blustery night in front of the faithful in the Cheadle End. Graeme Bond cam in for Dan Harris following which Sale conceded a penalty n one of Listerias rare excursions into the Sale half. Following the sin binning of Ian Fullarton for retaliation who left the field with blood poring down his face Listeria upped the ante and Kronfeld crossed from a pushover which they converted taking the scroes to 16-17. Sale tried to get back – several great moves went begging as either Hanley or Cueto knocked on and ball was slow to reach the wings wgen they had acres of room. A Jos Baxendell attempt at a drop was the last straw and the crowd knew the result then.

Despite the defeat Sale can take a lot from the game especially the forwards for shoving the Listeria pack the majority of the night.

As for Edgeley Park there were a few teething troubles but then we expected that and they did not spoil the “evening” for what was a far from friendly encounter. Roll on 12th September when hopefully Sale will be a bit sharper and we will have some players back from injury and perhaps those who have missed out on World Cup Places.

The best sight of the evening though was to see Charlie running on with the water and kicking the ball in the warm up – in a few weeks time van Straaten will have to be looking over shoulder solid as performance was.

SALE SHARKS
Going; Cueto, Baxendell, Harris, Hanley; van Straaten, Walshe; Sheridan, Cairns, Stewart; Fullarton, Schofield; Pinkerton, Lund, Davies.

Replacements: Roddham, Yates, Turner, Day, Wigglesworth, Bond, Hanley.

Scorers : Cueto (T), Hanley (T), van Straaten (2P)