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London Wasps 12 Sale Sharks 13

Jenny Dixon
26/11/2008

ONE POINT was all it took to end Sharks’ four-match losing streak.

Adams Park may seem like an unlikely venue for Sharks’ recovery, given that it is more than five years since Sale’s last win in High Wycombe.

Sharks lagged behind the hosts for 70 minutes on Sunday, until winger Mark Cueto scored under the posts for a decisive try.

Pass provider Charlie Hodgson secured the two points required to seal victory, slotting over the simple conversion.

London Wasps, last year’s champions, are struggling this season. They are languishing in 11th place in the Premiership table, having won just one league match from seven.

Played in bitterly cold conditions, and punctuated by heavy rain showers, Sunday’s match was never going to be an attractive game of running from the backs.

Instead physicality, tactics and the boot were the predominant qualities required to win.

The return of newly-capped Wales prop Eifion Roberts bolstered Sharks’ scrum, which had given Philippe Saint-Andre cause for complaint the previous week against Worcester.

But it was not a solo effort, the visiting players were forced to dig deep to secure only their second win since September.

Dave Walder opened the scoring for Wasps, posting penalties on seven and 11 minutes. Hodgson quickly reduced the deficit after the hosts were penalised in the line-out.

The conditions made handling errors inevitable and the frustration felt by the teams, both desperate for a win, spilled over into a clash between Sale captain Dean Schofield and Richard Birkett. Both were sent to the sin-bin, on 18 minutes, and though this didn’t eliminate all further fracas in the game, it did help to keep tempers under control.

After the two second rows trudged off to watch from the sidelines Walder re-established Wasps’ six-point lead with a third penalty.

Sharks then successfully absorbed pressure on their own tryline, created when Richard Wigglesworth’s attempted clearance failed to make it out of the 22 such was the force of the wind Sharks were playing against in the first half.

Wasps failed to add any points and Sharks went into the break trailing 12-6, after Hodgson converted a second penalty on the cusp of half-time.

For the next 36 minutes the score remained the same, Hodgson and Walder both missing two penalties each, while centre Mark Van Gisbergen got within metres of the tryline, after the ball was turned over by Wasps at the breakdown allowing George Skivington to make metres.

Then came the breakthrough for Sharks, as the partnership of Cueto and Hodgson, overlooked by England, added seven points.

Walder tried to claw it back but missed his last-chance drop goal.