The Sale Sharks needed three things from their match against London Irish on Friday - a win, a bonus point, and a try from Mark Cueto to ensure his place in the history books. Why? The win would wipe the "quietly confident" smiles off a team who had never lost at Edgeley. The bonus point would see them creeping up to the top half of the table and recover from the frustrating defeat at the hands of Gloucester. And Cueto? If he scored he would become the first player to score in seven consecutive Premiership games.

Speaking to a fairly taciturn, though friendly, Ben Coutts before the match I asked about how the game was going to shape up. Would the famous Irish lineout be an issue? "Well, I hope not. We've been putting a lot of work in on that area. Practice has been going well." And what was the team hoping for from the match? "In the end we're looking for a bonus point." I was also keen to know how he felt about our support of the team. "I was playing for the Jets on Monday and there was, what, fifty people there. So when you come out here … it's a good crowd. I've got no complaints."

Kick off!

The scoring opened after 6 minutes when Larrachaea performed a brilliant little chip and run manoeuvre and then passed inside to a perfectly placed Jason Robinson who ran it in for a try. Charlie Hodgson knocked it through the posts to make it 7-0.

Things quietened down for the next 15 minutes or so - with Charlie missing a penalty, and Everitt scoring one to make it 7-3.

Sale began piling on the pressure, with Hodgson and Cueto really working hard, but to no avail. When the ball was finally turned back over to the Irish Charlie was really hammering tackles and attempted to charge down several kicks. The Lions tour seems to have done this Shark no end of good. As if to reward all of this effort Sale were awarded a penalty in the final minute of the half, and Charlie did the business to make the scores 10-3.

Half time! The overall impression from where the missus and I were sitting was that Charlie was playing fearless, aggressive rugby, and that Larrachaea was the best of a bunch of excellent new signings. Another of our group had been slightly baffled to see the Sharks score upped by three points, before realising she had been using her medical knowledge to asses the muscular structure of Andy Titterell as he was warming up, and somehow missed the kick! The other thing that was clear was that the much vaunted showdown between Magne and Chabal failed to manifest itself, although our Andrew Sheridan had engaged in a bit of fisticuffs with the visiting Frenchman at one point.

As the second half opened I was dismayed - Daniel Larrachaea was running the ball out wide, seemingly on a suicide run. It seems that the professional was right and I was wrong however, as he somehow made it through and touched down to make it 15-3.

Irish nearly scored a try after 11 minutes, but the ball only crossed after a second movement. This galvanised them into a period of excellent play - fluidly running the ball, passing it wide and recirculating it.

After defending brilliantly Jason Robinson kicked the ball up pitch, right into the waiting arms of Irish fullback Delon Armitage, who in turn passed the ball casually to his right. It was intercepted by Chabal, who powered his way down the pitch to score Sharks third try, to huge applause. Charlie converted this one easily, and the scores stood at 22-3.

With the game clearly won, there was only the bonus try to get then. Cueto was in constant communication with Hodgson quietly, secretively, but persistently. The ball just wasn't coming his way, until at last it came out wide and with what was only his second touch of the game (by my count) he ran for the corner and touched down. The man is unstoppable! A conversion from Charlie Hodgson made the final score 29-3.

The whistle blew and we all retired to the supporters club bar, quietly confident of having a good night.