By Jonathan Noad
January 29 2004

The Sharks dreams of a Heineken quarter final spot were smashed by a very defensive French outfit. Missing play maker Charlie Hodgson seems to have stunted Sale’s progress. One cant help thinking that with a backline being released by Hodgson then Sale could have won against Leinster at home and would have broken down the stubborn defence of Biarritz. Sales woe was compounded by the loss of scrum half Bryan Redpath to a shoulder injury.

Despite the lions share of possession the Sharks were unable to break through the impressive Biarritz defence. However Sales defence was not so and Nicolas brusque skipped over to score a try for the visitors within five minutes. Yachvili the former Gloucester scrum half booted the conversion between the uprights to send them into a 0-7 lead. Sales Chris Jones was again impressive in the lineout along with Scotlands Ian Fullarton stealing the French ball on numerous aoccasions. Sale were however still unable to breakthrough. There was to be no more score until the second half when Petru Balan was driven over from a five metre scrum – the conversion being missed. Five minutes before full time stand off Peyrelongue knocked over a drop goal to give the visitors a victory at 0-15.

This was the first time since 1992 that Sale have failed to score in a home fixture. However, the forwards can be justifiably proud of the amount possession they seized and retained. It was just a pity that the backline did not have such invention and guile to break through the defence. Despite not progressing further it has been a wonderfully enjoyable competition. Few will ever forget that night and weekend in Dublin. Sale have shown this term that they deserve to be in the Heineken and can mix it with the big boys in Europe.

Scrumcaps man of the Heineken : Chris Jones

Sale: Robinson, Mayor, van Straaten, Bond, Hanley, Baxendell, Redpath, Yates, Cairns, Turner, Fullarton, Schofield, White, Sanderson, C. Jones.
Replacements: Roddam., Stewart, Day, Lund, Hoyle, Going, Wigglesworth.

Biarritz: Brusque, Vidave., Stcherbina, Isaac, Marlu, Peyrelongue, Yachvili, Balan, Gonzales, Avril, Manent, Couzinet, Betsen, Tonita, T. Lievremont.
Replacements: Minassian, Fitzgerald, Puleoto, Chouchan, Mazas, Gaitan, Bernat-Salles.