Saturday 1 November 2014 22:24, UK
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond felt there was still plenty of improvement to come from his side despite them winning 32-29 over Wasps in the LV= Cup.
Tries from Alberto de Marchi, Josh Beaumont, Viliami Fihaki and Charlie Ingall helped the Sharks claim a bonus-point triumph at the start of this season's tournament.
"We physically weren't in it in the first half, we were soft," Diamond said afterwards.
"Dan Braid did the team-talk at half-time, we, the coaches, didn't go in and it was down to Dan to sort that physicality side of things out, but it got progressively better.
"We go to Welford Road next week (to face Leicester) and we'll see if we can get something out of that. If we do, it will stand us in good stead of going through.
"This competition is important for us and that's why we put out a spine of the team like we did today. When you're in the Heineken Cup (European Champions Cup) and the group that we're in, it's difficult to win games.
"The Premiership we know is also hard to win games in so a win's a win and it does give us some confidence, and a bonus-point win will set us up for next week."
The visitors fought back to level matters at 29 apiece through Ed Jackson's try and Alex Lozowski's penalty, but Nick Macleod's late three-pointer meant it was Sale who took the victory.
Wasps defence coach Brad Davis felt that they were unfortunate to only come away from the AJ Bell Stadium with two points.
"I thought the effort and commitment was outstanding from a lot of players who haven't played a lot of rugby and I thought we were desperately unlucky not to come away with a bit more out of the game," he said.
"There were a lot of guys who hadn't played at this level and guys who had come in at really short notice and I thought they represented the club with distinction.
"I thought all the back-row put a good shift in, I thought the pack were good and I thought everyone who took to the park put a pretty healthy performance in.
"It was a good shift from our guys and it was a really, really harsh decision to take it to 32-29 I thought. It's disappointing from our aspect that we only came away with two points instead of pushing for the five."
