Were Charles Dickens alive today, he would probably survey the wreckage of Sale Sharks’ 2003/04 season and conclude that three of his greatest works provide a more than adequate summary of a turbulent campaign at Edgeley Park.

For a season that began with Great Expectations soon gave way to Hard Times and ended in a Tale of Two Cities (with liberal sprinklings of disappointment and recriminations).

The Great Expectations came on the back of a summer of what looked to be excellent recruitment with Braam van Straaten, Jason White, Andrew Sheridan and Matt Cairns joining an already strong squad that had finished the previous campaign in fourth in the Zurich Premiership.

The likes of Charl Marais, Richard Wilks and Scott Lines had departed but with the quality of the new signings and a coaching staff boosted by having led England to Churchill Cup glory, confidence was high despite Charlie Hodgson being ruled out for the first three months of the season with a knee ligament injury.

His absence shouldn’t have been too costly after all, because with Braam in the ranks we had one of the few place-kickers in the world on a par with Charlestan. Our famed back play may have lost one of its vital cogs, but at least the tee was in safe hands.
Well, that’s not how things panned out as a couple of days before the start of the season our new South African was struck down after picking up a knock in training.
That meant our “exciting new venture” – as chief executive Niels de Vos put it – at Edgeley Park (so long Heywood Road, thanks for the memories) started with centre Jos Baxendell in the number 10 shirt.

And with due respect to Jos, his analysis later in the season that asking him to be kicker was like “expecting someone from the Sales Department to be Director of Finance” was spot on. Just take a look at the season-opener against Northampton. Two tries for Steve Hanley and three split between new signings Cairns (two) and Sheridan meant we outscored the Saints by five touchdowns to four.

Yet a combination of Jos’ inconsistent kicking and Shane Drahm’s excellence – he sent over three successful kicks from the touchline including a penalty eight minutes into injury-time – meant professional rugby in Stockport began with a thrilling, albeit ultimately disappointing, 37-37 draw.

A dire 9-8 defeat at Newcastle followed – after which Brian Kennedy took the unusual step of issuing a public apology to Sharks fans that travelled to the north east – and when Bath edged a low-scoring game 14-9 a week later all was gloomy, particularly with Leicester and Wasps next up.

Yet an heroic performance at Welford Road – where we had not triumphed since a friendly back in 1974 – ended a winless run in the league that stretched all the way back to March.

Of course, the press focussed on Leicester’s seven absent England players, their injuries and the amount of youngsters they had on the field. For some reason the fact we were without Bryan Redpath, Pete Anglesea, Dan Harris, Jason Robinson and Jos failed to make most the national papers. Funny that.

Despite the encouraging nature of both the performance AND result, though, the lads took us on a rollercoaster ride for the next month with home defeats by Wasps and London Irish sandwiching an away victory at Quins.

Indeed our first home win of the season came as late as November 8 as Charlie’s return coincided with a five-try defeat of Leeds in front of the TV cameras…but Fortress Welford Road beckoned again, this time for round six of the Powergen Cup. Worried? Not us. We had a place in history in our sights.

Only three other teams had won at Leicester twice in a season and only two had beaten the Tigers there in a Challenge Cup tie. Oh, and just for good measure the six – yes, six – tries we scored in a phenomenal 43-28 victory was a record for an away team there.

For the record, the tries came from Quates, Stan (2), Graeme Bond (2) and Chris Mayor, while van Straaten kicked five conversions and a penalty. Even the understated Jim Mallinder admitted it was “remarkable”. He wasn’t wrong.

Again, even that victory failed to blow away the inconsistency that had tainted our season as we won two and lost two of our next four Zurich Premiership games either side of our latest foray into Heineken Cup rugby.

That began on the first weekend of December as Cardiff Blues travelled to EP – and the vast majority of a capacity crowd were not disappointed as not only did they see the World Cup up close and personal, but Sale ran out 26-24 winners thanks to a late drop-goal from Charlie.

Our consistent inconsistency continued as we were beaten 31-3 by Biarritz the following week and with the return against the French side and trips to Cardiff and Leinster to come things were looking tough, not for the first time in the season.
But if we hadn’t learnt by then, we certainly discovered on that now famous January night in Dublin that this crop of Sharks have one hell of a bite if they are cornered, no matter who the opponents.

A Leinster side packed with internationals was beaten 23-22 thanks to a 13-point haul from Charlie that included yet another late drop-goal.

Not only did the result keep us firmly in contention for the next phase and also lead to players joining fans in a memorable post-match celebration, it also gave Stuart Pinkerton the perfect send-off as he headed back Down Under.

Pinko had originally planned to return home before Christmas but the fact he should put the club before his own wishes (injuries to Pete Anglesea and Phil Davies had left us short in the back-row) says all anyone needs to know about the man.

Yet while the defeat of Leinster and the togetherness of fans and players in Dublin gave hope for the rest of the season, rumblings of discontent were on the horizon.
Great Expectations became Hard Times as we lost one (and very nearly two) of our coaching staff, our Heineken Cup dream ended and our Premiership form was such that a return ticket to Europe’s top table seemed light years away.

Read Part 2 here