As rain threatened it brought to mind the Jerusalem reminding me of Blake’s dark satanic mills oop north. Possibly Jim Mallinder’s team may have felt that they hadn’t even left the car park at Edgeley Park. Mad Max was on form likening Darkness’s song to a strangled animal, Jason the Orangutang was incognito due to a threatened kidnap attempt, almost every man and his dog in trews were running around with cameras and the pitch was unchanged. Just another normal match day at the Stoop.

There were two changes to the programme for Sale with Sheridan coming in at loose head and Yates dropping to the bench. Quins lost Ugo after his knock last week with Matt Moore coming in at wing. The whistle blew and play commenced.

Quins appeared to start off well winning the first line out and within two minutes Paul Burke successfully kicked a penalty giving Quins a 3-0 lead.

BillyD wins a lineout (Robshew)

Again, Quins were swift off the mark and though missing a possible try still looked hungry for a win. However, it didn’t take long for a penalty to be conceded against the home team and Braam Van Straaten, looking very much at home with his new club, successfully brought the score to 3-3 in the 12th minute.

Quins were still looking pretty sharp when in possession and the buzz was that this match could put to rights the dismal display against Sale last season. A penalty awarded to Sale was missed but in the 24th minute Sale’s hooker Matt Cairns scored a try successfully converted by Van Straaten. 10-3 to our friends from the North. As rain still threatened, it appeared that Sale did too. Two minutes later another successful penalty kick to Quins courtesy of Burkey.

Burkey Clears (Robshew)

The ball was back in play and it seemed a try could be on for Quins but unfortunately kicked out by Nick Walshe. A couple of near tries for the visitors but on a couple of occasions they appeared to have gained an extra player in the form of ‘arrold their invisible winger and apparently cousin to our own Harvey.

Half time and at 10-6 to Sale there was still a buzz that the home team could still make this retribution day.

After a great dance display from Harley’s Angels, our own dearly beloved Jason, incognito with Barbara his bodyguard and Ace Tiatia at the rear…so to speak, made an appearance to release 500 balloons in aid of the BPA. A cheer from the crowd and they were released to Nina’s ’99 red balloons’. A young supporter was overheard asking “Why can’t they be red dad?” “Because Nina wasn’t a Quin” dad replied.

The second half began and fans were anticipating a possible home win after the disappointing loss to last season’s top of the table team, Gloucester. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Sale dominated as soon as they started playing and it didn’t take long for Hanley to break though bravely chased by Duffy but couldn’t be caught. Yet another try was given to Sale and successfully converted. Just 5 minutes into the second half and Sale were 17-6 up.

The home team tried to break free but Sale’s defence was just too strong. Quins just didn’t seem to get their act together and after plenty of missed opportunities complete annihilation was averted by Burkey chipping over another penalty. Sale 17, Quins 9. There was still a chance Quins could turn the table to win but within a short space of time another try to the visitors by Cueto and a successful conversion. The score was now 24-9. This was a different ball game altogether. Bill Davison received the yellow card and the team were down to 14 men. This was not looking good.

BillyD lets rip (kwin)

Rain appeared and put a dampener on any hope Quins may have had to make this a home win. As fans started to desert the ground the home team bravely battled. Even with defeat on the horizon Quins still kept defending and battling it out. This was a different team to last season when they would have shown the white flag and surrendered but still they struggled on.

No Surrender (Andy Hancock)

Sheridan and Cairns were replaced by Titterall and Yates and with fresh players on for Sale would it be another walk over by the visitors? Andre Vos received some treatment and again ball was back in play. Another couple of replacements for Sale with Alex Sanderson and Turner replaced by Stewart and Lund and again they fought on.

With fifteen minutes to go Sale were now 27-9 and things looked grim for Quins. The boys valiantly played on but it was still a scrappy game with some poor decisions. There were a couple of missed opportunities for Quins and another missed penalty kick. Burkey was not having a good day. Dunne replaced Burke who appeared to have a slight injury.

A penalty kick was awarded to Sale and by 4.30 pm the score was 30-9 and it looked like a possible action replay of the debacle of last season’s head to head. With a partially empty stadium it wasn’t good. With just ten minutes to go Keogh broke free and couldn’t be caught and Dunne converted. Too little too late? It appeared so. At least it appeared that it would be 30-16 with a few minutes to go to final whistle. The ball was back in play and Moore appeared and another try for Quins. A missed conversion and missed bonus point. The final whistle blew.

The press conference awaited. What would Mark Evans have to say about the match?

ME: “It was frustrating to get the two tries in injury time. There were a number of opportunities and we spent a lot of time in their twenty two but Quins came away with not much apart from anxiety on our part and snatched chances.

There were two well worked tries for Quins that came from set plays which is what Quins train for but it was too little too late. We lost the game in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Errors and a different game took the score from 10-6 to 24-6 in a short time. For 10 minutes we played with 14 men and did it quite well without too many silly balls. Paul Burke had a kick on the calf but nothing serious. There are six line breakers all standing on the line rather than breaking it and this has not helped.”

Evs went on to say that Ace may be back next week and Josh and Ugo should certainly be. Tani and George Harder will still be out for a couple more weeks. Chris Bell is playing on Monday against new Northampton so if he comes out of that ok he will be back in next week. Simon Miall is out long term and with Will Greenwood and Jason Leonard away to the RWC that’s nine players out of the team. Losing two home games on the trot is not good.

Evs is confident that once the balance is back to the team the show will be back on the road again. He believes that Sale could easily win the Premiership and are looking good and has no idea how they lost to Newcastle. Today’s line out was better than last week as everything was wrong against Gloucester but he is still not entirely happy.

Jim Mallinder enters the room and smiles.

JM: “I’m happy with the result. It was a good achievement to win away and I am not disappointed. We deserved to win and our defence was good apart from the last two tries. We did the basics, scrummage and lineout well. The wingers played well in attack and defence. Walshe did a very good job with width and direction. Cairns is a good player and important. We have the two best hookers in Cairns and Titterall. They are being played and swapped to give both the opportunity to play. Sale have always had a good mobile pack and Cairns and Sheridan give extra bulk.

Hodgson is very close to being back in the team and should play within the next two weeks for an A team game. We were under massive pressure as talk is of Sale not winning away without Hodgson who will be welcomed back. I’m pleased with my players.

We’ve had a good away streak and at home to Northampton where some fantastic rugby was played and we drew. The Bath and Wasps games were close and we picked up bonus points. Hopefully with London Irish and Leeds we will have a good home win. Discipline must improve against London Irish as too many penalties were given to Paul Burke. All players think they are hard done by.”

Jim Mallinder is now looking to the future and his goal is to get Sale into the top three of the Premiership. He believes they are improving slowly but still have a lot of work to do. The league is more open this year with international players being away and it will be interesting to see what happens when they return. He pointed out that London Irish haven’t lost any players to the RWC so it will be interesting to see how they get on.

Final score: Sale 30 Quins 21. Match day attendance: 5,123 Referee: Ashley Rowden

Rowden enjoys himself (kwin)

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