By Strinesian Saleanian
August 31 2004

After slumming it in the South of France, Sale return to the tropical splendours of the UK to take on Glasgow in the latest of the pre-season warm-up matches. Glasgow – my goodness it’s changed in the past few years, all glass hotels and dockland flats (a legacy of the city of culture I’m told), certainly not the city I remembered. The conviviality of the locals hasn’t changed though, so my memories of the game are a little ‘fogged’ – please forgive any vagueness or inaccuracies in the following…

Put simply - Sale played them off the park for 30 minutes then took it easy. Once the substitutions started it became very confused and Glasgow got back into the game. I expect us to be much more ruthless next week!

First shock on arrival (apart from actually being able to watch the game with a pint in my hand – Edinburgh Shark tells me this is almost unique in Scotland) was the fact that Ted was selected at tighthead!

Starting lineup was:
1. Woodman
2. Bruno
3. Sheridan
4. Schofield
5. Day
6. White
7. Chabal
8. Carter
9. Redpath
10. Hercus
11. Hamley
12. Todd
13. Baxendell (Capt)
14. Mayor
15. Cueto

The scrums certainly didn’t suffer, Glasgow went back in most. Backrow snaffled the ball well, front five were combative and we even won our own ball (and a couple of theirs) in the lineouts. Dougie made a lot of good ground in the loose (the lad’s got potential) and Tam was vicious – some lovely stuff!

With possession guaranteed up front we made ground in the backs. Toddy chose ‘route one’ to some effect, Jos moved the ball well, and Frank was incisive in joining the attack from FB. As a result both Mayor and Stan scored impressive first half tries with fast, straight but elusive runs. The real star, however, was ‘Billy Smart’ Hercus with a sublime try of his own, plus his kicking boots, which meant the scoreboard kept ticking over throughout the game – but his contribution was far greater in both attack (where he benefited, naturally enough, from Basil’s service) and in defence. The Man of the Match.

Just before the end of the half, Scott Barrow (the guy ‘on loan’ from Rotherham) came on and immediately endeared himself to the locals with a try. As a result the HT score was 22-10, which flattered the home team. That being said, the game had apparently come very close to being called off due to the SRU not being particularly inclined to let ‘their’ players turn out for the Warriors. Bulloch, For example, spent the evening on the bench – perhaps we’ll see a more experienced team next week?

The second half was much more confused with multiple Sale substitutions. Carter was on and off like a yo-yo (a process aided by his yellow-carding at the end of the first half) and we saw the introduction of Mike Bartlett (not much opportunity to impress) for Mayor and Pierre Caillet (the unknown second row in Beziers perhaps?) for Chabel (who worryingly limped back to the changing rooms at the end of the match with an ice-pack strapped to the top of his knee/thigh). In fact, substitutions became so many and varied, we ended the match with 2 fly-halves (Charlie at FB), 2 hookers (Titts at flanker) and both Martens and Wiggy on the field (not sure where they were playing!). The result therefore was perhaps a little closer than it should have been.

After the game, back in the beer tent, the band played on – including ‘Mrs Robinson’. We sang along…but changed the words slightly!