Sale win cross-code experiment as Long falls short at the last

Meaningless novelty it might have been for the most part, but the cross-code experiment at Knowsley Road last night ended amid some dramatic tension as Sean Long missed the conversion that would have given Saints a face-saving draw.

Sale had put themselves in a winning position by denying Saints a point for almost half of the second, Rugby League, section of the game, but, just as they have done so often, Saints still came storming back and an injury time try from Jason Hooper gave them their chance.

But Long fluffed the sort of goal he normally puts over without fuss and the game ended in something close to farce as Sale successfully argued that it was over, but Saints claimed that there were still four minutes left.

Many of the differences between the two codes were all too obvious last night, but timekeeping was not expected to be one of them.

As might have been expected, neither side found it easy to play the other's game, with neither even scoring a point in their opposite code.

Sale used their inevitable dominance in lineout and maul to grind their way over for seven tries in the Union half, but their coach, Jim Mallinder, admitted: "We were a bit boring. We're not normally as boring as that, but that was the way we had to play it.''

It was an approach that gave the Saints' coach, Ian Millward, the chance to ask rhetorically: "How boring is that, when you stick the ball up your arse and walk up field? I had to set my alarm clock at times."

Where Saints let themselves down, however, was in their below par effort at their own game. Two quick tries seemed to set them on their way to wiping out Sales' 41-point lead, but the enthusiasm with which the Sharks chased and harried them kept them out for 19 minutes and probably deserved to win them the game.

Mallinder said he would have been happy with a 41-all draw, not a scoreline which is very common in either code, and said there might be scope for a repeat. "The players enjoyed it and, if the crowd enjoyed it, why not?" he said.

Over 12,000 seemed to derive a certain pleasure from an amiable enough evening, but there will always be something hollow about two hopelessly one-sided games cobbled together, even if they add up to a close finish.

St Helens: Albert, Maden, Gleeson, Newlove, Gardner, Martyn, Long, Ward, Wilkin, S Jones, Edmondson, Joynt, Kirkpatrick, Bennett, Jonkers. Substitutes used: Hooper, Britt, Smith, Maye, Rowlands, Stankevitch, Higham.

Sale Sharks: Robinson, Cuerto, Mayor, Harris, Hanley, Baxendell, Wigglesworth, Thorp, Marais, Turner, Schofield, Anglesea, Perelini, Wilks, Davis. Substitutes used: Roddam, Arnold, Parr, C Jones, Deane, Going, Walshe.

Referees: D Pearson (Northumberland) and K Kirkpatrick (Warrington).