The much vaunted battle of the Fly-Halves turned out to be a very close run match indeed. Hodgson got the edge on his rival ... not only did he score more points (including a try directly from a interception of a Wilkinson pass), but the game ended in high tension with Wilkinson missing a conversion in the last seconds of the game.

Sale Sharks Starting XV
1 Andrew Sheridan
2 Sebastien Bruno
3 Barry Stewart
4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe
5 Chris Jones
6 Jason White
7 Magnus Lund
8 Sebastien Chabal
9 Richard Wigglesworth
10 Charlie Hodgson
11 Jason Robinson
12 Elvis Sevalai'i
13 Mark Taylor
14 Mark Cueto
15 Daniel Larrechea

Replacements
16 Andy Titterrell [rep: Chabal (70)]
17 Lionel Faure
18 Stuart Turner [rep: Stewart (50)]
19 Dean Schofield [rep: Lobbe (58)]
20 Christian Day [rep: Jones (H/T)]
21 Valentin Courrent [rep: Wigglesworth (80)]
22 Robert Todd [rep: Larrechea (80)]

Man of the Match: Daniel Larrechea