RUGBY HEINEKEN CUP Sale 16 Munster 24: BY THE end, as the Munster men in white were leaving the pitch, the only supporters left inside the tight confines of Edgeley Park were in four dense pockets of red and a few other sprinklings of Red Army travellers.
Another little corner of England conquered; another hard-nosed, honest-as-the-day-is-long win on the European road. You could never tire of it.
"We were pumped up for this one," admitted Roan O'Gara after his late drop-goal had not only sealed a 24-16 win but denied Sale a bonus point, thereby putting the number one seeds in pole position in Pool One, three points clear of the Sharks.
"We respect Sale hugely - they are a quality side - so we had a great attitude going into it," added the outhalf. "We realised that if we were beaten today we were out of the competition, and that was scary to think of too."
It completed a memorable Anglo double for the two leading Irish provinces, after Leinster's stunning, unanswered 26-point second-half blitz over the two-time winners Wasps less than 24 hours before without their current and previous captain.
Further good cheer came with the news Brian O'Driscoll's injury is not as bad as initially feared, pending a scan on his twisted knee today, though Leo Cullen's broken collarbone rules him out for six to eight weeks and a third operation on Gordon D'Arcy's broken arm last week may delay his return for a further three months.
If, however, Edinburgh's win in France could be interpreted as good news for Leinster, given their impending back-to-back matches with a Castres team now effectively out of contention, Clermont's late win in Montauban yesterday is not ideal for Munster.
Clermont now remain in contention ahead of their back-to-back meetings with the champions in December, and given the events of last season Vern Cotter's side are hardly likely to roll over and have their bellies tickled in Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin.
Indeed, unless Munster win both those matches, assuming Sale complete a double over Montauban, the Sharks could arrive at Thomond Park in round five leading the pool, or at any rate still on Munster's shirt-tails.
Thus, when it was put to coach Tony McGahan that Munster were now in control of the group, he retorted: "Not at all. Three points ahead, I don't think that gives us any control really.
"Clermont are going to bounce back; they're a super side down there and we've to go there next time out. Sale were magnificent there last week and we will need to be to get a result."
That said, yesterday's win was a huge achievement, as he admitted.
"It's another chapter in Munster's history and I thought today, full credit to the players, they were outstanding and it was just a great result all round."
Inevitably, the combined effects of a below-par, distracted effort at home to Montauban coupled with Sale's eye-catching bonus-point win Clermont served to focus Munster minds and spark a backlash.
During team meetings in the week, the feeling was they had tried too hard to put on a show for the Euro-unveiling of the redeveloped Thomond Park.
"Last week we were guilty of trying to please everyone, to be honest," said McGahan. "But I thought our selection criteria when we ran and when we kicked was much better (against Sale) . . . We were very direct today, we controlled things well, we had an excellent work rate - second and third efforts all day - and full credit to the forwards; it was a challenge for them and they stood up to it."
McGahan's three changes in personnel and couple of positional switches were all vindicated.
"I thought Paul (Warwick) controlled the game very well as we thought he would do on a smaller pitch, Keith Earls was very solid for us in the centre and John O'Sullivan worked very hard for his 50 minutes."
To which could be added a fine all-round performance by the recalled Tomás O'Leary.
McGahan also praised Lifeimi Mafi for "outstanding defence", the highlight of which was an earth-shuddering, rib-tickler on Sébastien Chabal, with The Caveman at full tilt. "He pulled off a couple of real turning points, we got turnovers on the back of them and we gathered momentum and it had a real focus for us."
If only Mafi had not played sevens for New Zealand! Could the IRFU not launch a campaign to secure his Ireland eligibility?
As for Mafi's yellow card, after a warning for allegedly dumping Neil Briggs in the tackle, McGahan wryly observed, "Allegedly is a good word."
When Mafi was binned for the last 10 minutes for stiff-arming Mathew Tait, one of many smart calls was to replace the backrow Justin Melck with Barry Murphy, thereby ending David Wallace's brief cameo at centre.
"Not a moment too soon," quipped the man of the match.
No away win in Europe would be possible without a near vintage display of decision-making and kicking from O'Gara, who in another business might have been on paternity leave.
"The pleasing thing from our point of view was that our character was tested again," said O'Gara, "as it was last week when going behind with three minutes to go. We were tested again today and it's a sign of a good team to keep chipping away and believe in each other."
In keeping with a worrying trend in this Heineken Cup, the officiating was poor. Not only were forward passes missed, an O'Gara penalty was adjudged to have hit the top of the upright and gone wide without even recourse to the TMO while Christophe Berdos's 12-4 penalty count in favour of Sale suggested a lopsided view of the breakdown area.
"It's always a concern when the referee is against you in certain areas," admitted McGahan with the hint of a wry smile. "We just need to refocus on that."
