The Guinness Premiership game between Northampton Saints and Sale Sharks at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday Oct 24, 2009.
Northampton returned home to the scene of their Heineken Cup triumph over Munster but failed to match that performance in a lacklustre win over Sale.
The Saints began full of attacking purpose and looked dangerous whenever their dynamic pack broke the gain line. But too often their rhythm was interrupted in the final third by technical offences and basic errors.
Even Shane Geraghty, looking to ru! bber-stamp his elevation to the England Elite Squad for the autumn internationals, fluffed his lines and was replaced with a quarter of the game to go.
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder admitted that off the field matters disrupted his side's preparation. "It's not been a particularly good week for us. In terms of our performance out in Perpignan and then having some disciplinary problems this week. But I think the way the lads responded was excellent," he said.
It took the sin-binning of Sale centre Andy Tuilagi, for his involvement in an off the ball altercation, for Northampton to make their dominance count in the scrappiest of first-halves.
Ben Foden exploited the numerical advantage by scoring the first try of the game when he wriggled over in the corner following good work from Chris Ashton. This seemed to ! spur the home side on to go looking for more points before ! the inte rval, and they soon had their second.
From a line-out close to the Sale line, Geraghty released Ashton and he looped a long ball out wide to Bruce Reihana, who stepped England wing Mark Cueto to score.
Geraghty added a penalty just after half-time to extend Northampton's lead before the inaccuracies returned to allow Sale a route back into the game.
Northampton's pack, who had looked in complete control for the opening 50 minutes, were turned at a routine defensive scrum five metres out and James Gaskell pounced on the loose ball to score.
A yellow card apiece for Mark Easter and Brent Cockbain ensured a dramatic final ten minutes. But Sale left the Midlands content after Charlie Hodgson's penalty brought them a losing bonus point.
Match details
Scores: 3-0 Geraghty pen, 3-3 Hodgson pen, 8-3 Foden try, 10-3 Geraghty con, 15-3 Reihana try, 18-3 Geraghty pen, 18-8 G! askell try, 18-10 Hodgson con, 18-13 Hodgson pen, 21-13 Myler pen, 21-16 Hodgson pen.
Northampton: B Foden; C Ashton, C Mayor (J Ansbro 57), J Downey, B Reihana; S Geraghty (S Myler 62), L Dickson (A Dickens 76); R Dreyer, D Hartley [capt], S Tonga'uiha, I Fernandez Lobbe (C Day 62), C Lawes, P Dowson, N Best (M Easter 53), R Wilson.
Yellow card: M Easter (70-80)
Sale: N Macleod; M Cueto, M Tait (C Bell 80), A Tuilagi, B Cohen, C Hodgson, R Wigglesworth (D Peel 76); G Kerr (J Forster 60), M Jones, E Roberts, D Schofield [capt] (R O'Donnell 80), S Cox, J Gaskell (B Cockbain 54), D Seymour, S Koyamaibole (D Tait 57).
Yellow card: A Tuilagi (30-40), B Cockbain (75-ft)
Referee: P Fitzgibbon (Ireland).
