By RK
September 4 2005

Once more, the crowds start to swell around Edgeley Park on a Friday evening. The quiet of the summer months gone as thousands of feet tramp into the stadium. Thousands of eyes stare at thousands of watches willing 8pm to arrive. RK is there. His pen is poised. The hour strikes...

Strolling into the sunshine at the bottom of the Main Stand and it hit me that while the summer weather may still be here, so was the rugby. After all the summer signings, Lions shambling and pre-season jousting, Friday night was rugby night again. Marvellous.

The feeling of euphoria lasted around 10 seconds, though, as my eyes fell on Jonny Wilkinson out on the pitch – with over an hour until kick-off – slotting place kick after place kick between the posts. Surely not a good omen for what lay ahead. A look at the archive before setting off had told me Tony Spreadbury was the whistler on that occasion, and flicking through ‘Shark Attack’ as Jonny continued his metronomic efforts in front of me revealed ‘Spreaders’ was again in charge. The omens were not good.

The official team news showed a Sale team exactly as PSA had named it on the eve of the game, with three debutants in the XV and another two on the replacements’ bench. Daniel Larrechea, impressive in pre-season, started at full-back as part of a backline featuring Quates and Jason Robinson on the wings – after Brian Kennedy instructed PSA he was clear to play his Lions for as long as he wanted – and new signings Mark Taylor and Elvis Sevealai’i in the centres.

Charlie was given the nod at fly-half with Richard Wigglesworth preferred to Valentin Courrent at scrum-half; the French youngster named among the replacements. Sheri, Seb Bruno and Bear made up the front row, with Nacho Lobbe and Chris Jones in the second row and Jason White, Magnus Lund and Sea Bass in the back row.

The Falcons team was also ‘as named’ with Wilkinson a replacement, poised and ready to come on for Dave Walder to join a strong backline featuring Matthew Burke, Tom May, Jamie Noon, Mark Mayerhofler, former Shark Anthony Elliott and Hall Charlton. The pack was more of a mystery with two new signings from Plymouth, Tino Paoletti and Andy Perry, starting and Robbie Morris beginning his Falcons career on the bench.

Under sunny Stockport skies, Charlie got the inaugural Guinness Premiership season under way as the first roar from a packed Edgeley Park went up. Evidently it wasn’t just me delighted to have the rugby back!

The early stages were one-way traffic as Newcastle’s pack were given a pounding before ‘Larry’ Larrechea gave the first glimpse of his Mallinder-esque repertoire by gathering a hanging kick, feinting past Elliott and pounding a kick deep into Falcons territory.

Indeed it was eight minutes before the visitors got their first real spell of ball in hand, yet even when they managed to string some phases together it would lead to our first points.

A pass out towards Elliott from midfield skipped out for a Sale lineout. Seb found his man – as he invariably does – and the forwards rumbled from the 22 to the halfway line, drawing a penalty. Charlie pumped it into touch down the left, and then comfortably slotted over the subsequent penalty after Perry was pinged at the lineout.

That should have been the signal for us to press home our obvious advantage up front but it seemed to kick Newcastle into action and when Quates was adjudged (in the first of a string of debatable Spreaders decisions) to have knocked on just inside his own 22 Falcons worked the ball wide and Burke raced in. Walder converted and from nowhere it was Sale 3 Newcastle 7 with more then a few bemused looks around the ground.

Charlie had an immediate chance to cut the gap to a point as Jason White put in a huge hit from the restart to draw a penalty but the kick was pushed across the posts. The pro-Jonny faction of the crowd nodded sagely. Little did they know!

Walder also let a penalty slide across the posts soon after, yet still Sale were dominating. The forwards were doing the hard yards and were hammering into their Newcastle counterparts yet all too often the backs looked far from sure of themselves, stuttering and becoming isolated, presenting easy turnover ball and allowing the Falcons to clear.

The players and crowd looked in need of a lift and it came when ‘Larry’ ticked the second of the Mallinder Mk II boxes by hoisting a towering kick and racing downfield to gather the kick himself. With the Newcastle players sucked in, it was worked through midfield where Jason White showed tremendous skill and timing to offload into Elvis’ hands and he flicked it on to Quates, who finished in the corner.

Charlie converted to give us a half-time lead that in terms of possession and territory should really have been more than 10-7, yet with little fluidity in the backs it was no surprise we went in with only one try on the board.

On came Wilkinson at the break and his introduction bore immediate fruit as his dabbed kick over the top caused a mix-up between Charlie and Larry and allowed Elliott to go over in the corner. Wilkinson converted and Newcastle were back in front.

Yet within five minutes the lead had changed hands again as a brace of Charlie penalties – one immediately from the restart after Elliott’s try – made it Sale 16 Newcastle 14.

Not to be outdone Wilkinson slotted a penalty of his own to put Falcons back in front as the two Lions fly-halves slugged it out – not for the first time – toe to toe, but it was Sir Clive’s favourite who entered the last quarter of the match on a downer.

A poor pass from him fell behind Jamie Noon and Elvis pounced, scooping the ball up and feeding Charlie. He had a yard’s lead on his England rival as he received and Sale fans were gleeful, as he pulled clear leaving Wilkinson with a face full of dirt.

His conversion gave Sale a six-point lead and when the lads turned a Newcastle scrum through at least 95 degrees soon after, all – briefly – looked well. Yet Spreaders failed to spot it and when Jason White dived out of the subsequent ruck out came the yellow card.

Scenting what had appeared to be an unlikely victory, Falcons cranked up the pressure but Charlie slotted over a penalty with eight minutes left on the clock and a nine-point advantage would surely be enough.

But with five minutes left Wilkinson used advantage ball to slot over a wobbly drop goal and suddenly a converted try would be enough for the Falcons.

The scoreboard clock then took us back in time as it was adjusted to factor in injury time and when Wilkinson broke the defensive line it needed frantic defensive work to force the knock-on.

Toddy came trotting on, then Courrent for his debut, as we ran the clock down yet it still needed some heroic defensive work to keep the Falcons at bay as they camped on the tryline for what seemed like an eternity.

Eventually a knock-on halted the attack and it was no surprise to see three Sharks slumped on their backs as the Falcons retreated.

Yet there was still a twist in the tail, just as there had been at Kingston Park the last time the teams met. Elliott, relishing being up against his old side, crashed over presenting Wilkinson with the chance to give the Falcons victory with the last kick of the match.

The mind flashed back to Kingston Park and Wilkinson’s efforts in early January, and back to the pre-match warm-up when he had looked in great touch with the boot.

Yet something was different this time. Perhaps it was the booing that greeted Wilkinson’s run-up, perhaps it was his lack of rugby of late. Or perhaps it was simply a pressure kick, most of which he makes but some of which do – despite the hype – go astray.

Whatever, the kick slid across the posts to the right and the Sale fans erupted.

PSA said after the game it was “better to win ugly than play well and lose”. Of course, he was right but bigger challenges await this season – and the performance level must rise.