Sunday's pivotal 24-16 loss at the hands of the reigning cup holders dramatically changed the geography of what has been termed `The Group of Death'.
The Irish giants are now very much in pole position as a result of their storming of Edgeley Park, with second-placed Sale now effectively having to win the return match at Munster's refurbished Thomond Park fortress if they are to have any chance of topping the group.
Given the fact that the men from Limerick boast a near-impeccable home record in the competition, having lost just one of the last 35 Heineken Cup matches that they have hosted, Sale could be forgiven for giving up the ghost already.
But Wigglesworth, who unwittingly found himself at the centre of post-match controversy after being preferred to Charlie Hodgson at fly-half, insisted the Sharks' inner belief had not been punctured in spite of Sunday's huge setback.
"It was massively disappointing to lose but we're still in the competition," stressed the England international.
Favour
"Now Munster have got two tough games on the bounce against Clermont Auvergne, so we need a favour there and then we need to go and beat Munster at Thomond Park.
"For now we'll get back to the EDF Energy Cup and then the Guinness Premiership, we'll look to re-group and when our two back-to-back games against Montauban come around in December, we're going to have to ensure that we are on top of our game. But we've still got every confidence that we can still qualify from this group.
"The first thing that our skipper Juan Lobbe said to us afterwards was `Let's believe', because we know we've got a group of players with the quality to get us out of this group still."
As he reflected on what was a harsh lesson about the realities of what it takes to win in the northern hemisphere's most prized club competition, Wigglesworth ruefully conceded that Sale, in part, were architects of their own downfall.
"We were really up for it but we made a lot of mistakes," admitted Wiggy, who was switched to his more familiar role at scrum-half after Hodgson was belatedly introduced early in the second half.
"Obviously I have to take a bit of responsibility as I played in both the half-back positions.
"We didn't use the wind as well as they did and I think that proved to be a big factor in the final outcome.
"Every time that they got in our 22 they looked to take points and you have to give them credit for the way they took full advantage of those situations."
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