For 77 minutes, Sale had been utterly magnificent. Against a high-flying Bath side that bullies and bludgeons teams into submission, the Sharks had not only stood toe-to-toe with the West Country men, they had taught them a rugby lesson too.
They had even managed to overcome the hugely controversial first-half handicap of at one stage being reduced to 13 men after both Sebastien Chabal and Stuart Turner were sin-binned, not to mention being outscored four penalties to one.
Leading 20-19, thanks to three superbly-crafted tries, victory appeared theirs for the taking only for nerves, indecision and a touch of naivety to fatally undermine all their hard work.
First Charlie Hodgson of all people, kicked into touch a ball passed back from outside the 22, and the subsequent 10-metre line-out ultimately led to Sale's downfall.
Jason White actually stole possession for the Sharks but Bath's panzer pack drove forward, wrestled a turnover and when the ball was fed out, Alex Crockett chipped across the Sale back-line to man mountain winger Matt Banahan, who ghosted inside Mark Cueto to touch down with 43 seconds left on the clock.
No wonder Sale director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre and his backroom staff sat motionless in frozen horror at the final whistle. As acts of grand larceny go, this was right up there and a losing bonus point was scant reward.
That was not what the sublime efforts of skipper Juan Lobbe - immense yet again - and his fellow forwards, not to mention the likes of Dwayne Peel, who had arguably his best game in a Sale shirt, the otherwise sublime Hodgson, and a rejuvenated Cueto, deserved.
Control
"We were fantastic the only thing is we didn't control the last three minutes of the game. We made more mistakes there than in the rest of the game," admitted Saint-Andre.
"Today showed against one of the best sides in Europe we can play positive rugby, we scored three tries, we did everything possible to try to win and I am so very disappointed for all of the guys."
But the frustration of Sale's departing boss at seeing victory wrenched from his side's grasp was as nothing compared to his barely-contained fury at the display of referee David Rose, who proved a thorn in Sale's side all afternoon.
The official had struggled to keep a grip on a feisty, festive affair, particular in a tinderbox first-half that exploded on 14 minutes after a flare-up featuring pantomime villain Chabal and Bath scrum-half Michael Claassens that ended with the Frenchman yellow-carded.
"We were penalised 15 times against five. You want consistency from the referee, but there wasn't any today," raged Saint-Andre.
"We were penalised in every area, in attack, in defence and in the scrum."
All that early noise and fury overshadowed some exquisite, inventive back-line play from Saint-Andre's men who once and for all nailed the lie that they favour pragmatism over panache.
They set the tone with a sublime 11th minute score, Peel's quick-thinking tap penalty and a deft pass from Hodgson freed Luke McAlister - also hugely impressive - who finished with aplomb.
And though Daniel Browne's converted pushover try five minutes later, when Sale were down to 14 men, gave Bath the lead, Sale struck again just on half-time when Cueto squeezed in at the corner.
The winger, who was deployed at full-back to cover for the injured Rory Lamont, hasn't played for England since last year's World Cup final.
But on this sparkling evidence he's surely worth a recall, as he again demonstrated 13 minutes from time with what Sale, falsely, hoped was a match-winning try.
Hodgson was again the conjuror, feeding Cueto with the deftest of inside passes and the Cumbrian turned on the after-burners to leave Bath opposite number Nick Abendanon for dead.
It should have been the conclusion to a famous win but, sadly this Christmas tale was doomed to an unhappy ending.
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