“I’M sure it wasn’t pretty to watch, but these were two sides with a lot of second-string players, who were desperate to win.” The verdict of Sale Sharks’ Director of Rugby Philippe St. Andre, after two men currently unwanted by England – Mark Cueto and Charlie Hodgson – had combined to set up the game’s only try with four minutes to go.

Wasps had been ahead from the seventh minute of the game until fly half Hodgson provided the pass for his right-wing colleague to crash over the Adams Park line near the posts. In foul conditions, kicking had at times been a lottery, but Hodgson made sure with his close-range conversion to put the Sharks one point ahead. Although Wasps’ number ten Dave Walder soon set up a drop goal chance in reply, the close attention of Sharks’ Man-of-the-Match Neil Briggs distracted the former Falcon, and the ball sailed past the post in the chilly Chiltern wind.

Major first-half incidents were a 17th minute altercation between Birkett and Schofield, which saw them shown yellow cards, soon followed by a series of seven Wasps’ scrums near Sharks’ line, which the visiting defence resisted and eventually ‘turned over’. Handling was something of a lottery, and even kicking from hand was hard to control. Nonetheless, both sides chose to put boot to ball with regularity, with the appointed place kickers registering six penalties between them before half time: four for Walder and two for Hodgson. The scoreboard remained motionless on 12-6 for all the second half until Cueto and Hodgson combined in the 76th minute to settle the issue.

This morale-boosting victory took Sharks up to fifth in the Guinness Premiership, one place behind this Friday’s visitors, Leicester Tigers (Edgeley Park, kick off 7.45 pm).

Numbers training at Carrington have substantially increased this week, with the club’s international players back in the fold. Juan Fernandez Lobbe, Sebastien Chabal, Lionel Faure, Dwayne Peel and Rory Lamont are all available for selection this weekend. After Tuesday’s team announcements, the Sharks will have no representatives in the games at Twickenham and Cardiff, whilst Leicester will have Toby Flood, Tom Croft, Harry Ellis and Dan Hipkiss in Martin Johnson’s twenty-two. Sharks’ prop Andrew Sheridan has again been ruled out with a neck injury. Looking forward to Friday’s crucial encounter, Philippe St.Andre said, “We need to move on in our next two home games, and try to build another winning run. Leicester is an important game, and we’ll have a lot of our Test players back.”

European action follows with back-to-back games against Montauban. The Sharks’ home Heineken Cup tie will be at Edgeley Park on Friday, 5th December (7.45 p.m.) Ticket Office: 08444 994 994.