By Whaley Shark and madhatter
May 15 2006

After last week’s carnival rugby at Northampton, it’s back to business with a vengeance. A playoff semi-final at home, reward for a table-topping performance over 22 games in the GP, and a chance for the big prize. The Whaley Shark starts his Sunday with a close encounter of the Waspish kind.

So how to spend a Sunday morning before the lunch time kick off of Sale’s biggest match of the season? I know- I’ll go the gym in Cheadle. Walking into the foyer, there seem to be quite a few burly lads about and my Sharks T-shirt gets a few rather funny looks, especially from a bloke who looks just like…….Stuart Abbot. The penny drops- I have wandered into the Wasps team hotel. I consider offering to make them a Tottenham Hotspur lasagne, or giving their coach driver helpful directions to the ground via Caernarfon and Huddersfield but, in the end, resist the temptation and slope off quietly to Edgeley Park.

The crowd is getting revved up well before the start and support for the team as it warms up is much stronger than normal. The ground is packed, and then Sale kick off what turns out to be a tense, sometimes tetchy game, played flat out with complete commitment and with no quarter asked or given. It is simultaneously fascinating and horrific, much like a car crash. Sale get off to a good start, with Wasps making a mess of receiving the kick off, and conceding an easily kicked penalty in the first minute. Wasps reply a few minutes later, then miss another penalty kick after a spell of pressure, during which Jason White is knocked cold- he went down like a felled tree, referee, and you saw it happen, so why the hell did you let play go on? Defences are dominant and neither side really strings together a good attack, although Tom Voyce breaks away down the left and floats a pass towards his support. Magnus Lund intercepts and Charlie clears- danger over, and that is also the end of Tom Voyce, who has injured a hamstring. Sale manage to pick up a couple more penalties, the second one after a ferocious rolling maul, to lead 9-3 at the end of the first quarter.

Sale probably just have the edge at this stage of the game. The scrum is standing up to everything Wasps can throw at it, and the lineout is doing well, winning quite a bit of ball on Wasps’ throw. Charlie is taken out in the air, which infuriates the crowd, and seems to struggle for quite some time afterwards, but Sale continue to have some success in trying to beat the Wasps defence with grubber kicks and chips over the top. Wasps have their moments too but, with just over half an hour gone, we reach perhaps the game’s turning point- Jason Robinson slides through a gap, beats two covering defenders and runs in a try in front of a manic Cheadle End. Charlie converts. Wasps start to wobble- a restart that doesn’t go 10 metres, penalised for “not straight” at the line-out. At the end of the half, they miss a penalty.

Wasps are more settled at the beginning of the second half and kick a penalty. Sale string together a sustained attack, advancing well into the Wasps half, but then Wasps break out and, just for a second, there is a crisis. Fortunately, play is called back for a Sale penalty and the Charlie moves Sale on to 19-6 after 45 minutes. Sale are calm under extreme pressure- Quates makes a 70 metre break but outruns his support and is caught by the Wasps cover; van Gisbergen kicks through, Charlie takes the kick in his own 22 and, cool as you like, ships a pass to Ripol who has a better angle for the touch kick. Wasps continue to press and eventually get another penalty, but both Jason White (on the crowd’s favourite, Mr Dallaglio) and Seabass put in obliterating tackles. Wasps grind closer to the Sale try line with phase after phase, but the Sale defence then shifts up a gear and a series of Wasps moves each ends behind the gain line- suddenly Wasps have lost 20 metres and the pressure is easing. Sale make a flurry of substitutions and seem to get on top for a while but without scoring. Wasps come back with another penalty after 65 minutes for 19-12.

From the restart, Sale regain possession and Charlie slides a grubber kick through the defenders to give Wasps a lineout 10 metres from their own line. Sale win the ball though and start a series of drives for the line. Everything is glacially slow and the Wasps defence isn’t really troubled. Charlie tries for the drop goal but misses. The two sides remain very evenly matched until Sale put a series of moves together late on. They win a scrum 20 metres out from the Wasps line, Wasps concede a penalty and Charlie kicks it to give us some breathing space. A couple of minutes later, there is a scrum about half way, the crowd helps the clock count down the last few seconds, and the forwards run the ball into touch. Twickenham here we come……..

So, in the end, the difference came down to not much more than Jason’s little touch of high speed magic. The defence was colossal and the forwards gave the Wasps pack a hard time, especially in the lineout. I didn’t really take to Wasps’ style- there was a bit much going on off the ball and their defence perhaps lives just beyond the edge of the offside laws. Magnus, whose support play was outstanding (did we actually have two of him on the pitch?) won man of the match, which was fair, but I thought Nacho played a blinder as well, and so did Jason White and, in fact, thinking about it, all of the players were immense today- THANK YOU ALL!!!!!! The spectators really got behind the team, who were clearly overjoyed at the end, and that was quite the loudest noise I have heard at Edgeley Park, so a “Well done” to us in the crowd as well, I think. See you at Twickenham.