SALE Sharks face their Heineken Cup date with destiny at Munster tonight on the verge of 'something special' according to winger Mark Cueto.

Only a win at the formidable Thomond Park, home of the reigning Cup holders, will do if Sale are to keep alive their dreams of qualifying for the quarter-finals.

It's a feat which only one other English club - Leicester - have achieved in 13 years of fierce European combat.

But according to a revitalised Cueto, who is producing some of the finest rugby of his career right now and was rewarded with a recall to the England Six Nations squad earlier this week, the Sharks genuinely believe they can prevail where so many have failed before.

"Something sort of special is happening with Sale at the minute," Cueto declared.

"You often hear about sports professionals referring to something having clicked and that's what we feel. It's something almost intangible in that you can't put your finger on.

"At the minute there's a massive, almost unbelievable atmosphere amongst the players. Everyone is going out playing well, week in, week out and that has been reflected in our results over the past six weeks or so.

"And on the back of last weekend's win against the league leaders London Irish, we're all very confident going into the Munster match.

"Going to Thomond Park was a big enough occasion in the past but now they have redeveloped part of the ground I would imagine it's only going to be even bigger and better but all the boys believe that we can get the win we need."

Blown

Cueto will, however, be hoping to avoid one repeat of his previous trip to Limerick three years ago when Sale were blown away 31-9.

"I got pulled into the crowd last time! There was a little wall that used to run up the side of the pitch and I and the opposition winger fell into this wall and there was a bit of handbags," the 29-year-old recalled.

"The next minute a load of the Irish fans are pulling me into the wall backwards! I was thinking `what is going on?' Hopefully the wall will have been taken down and they won't be able to do that again on Friday!"

Sale boss Philippe Saint-Andre has opted to make just one change to the side that performed so impressively in grounding the Exiles last Friday, with Richard Wigglesworth being handed the starting berth at scrum-half and Wales and British Lions star Dwayne Peel rotated to the bench.

England duo Andrew Sheridan and Mathew Tait must again both also be content with a place on what is a powerful-looking replacements bench.

Ahead of what is expected to be an explosive encounter in front of a 26,000 sell-out crowd, the Edgeley Park director of rugby called on referee Nigel Owens not to be swayed by European club rugby's most intimidating atmospheres.

"We need a strong referee. We know that 80 to 90 per cent of the 50-50 decisions tend to go against you at Munster so we hope that the referee will be very strong," said Saint-Andre.

"In terms of our group we know what is at stake tonight. Quite simply, we need to win both our remaining games to stand a chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals. As things stand, any one of the four teams in our group can still qualify.

"We always knew it was winner takes all in our Heineken Cup group and that no team would qualify as a runner-up.

"We have had a good run of late but this is a huge test for us. But we will have nearly 3,000 of our fans making the journey with us and I am sure they will give the players great support."

SALE SHARKS: Cueto, Bell, Tuilagi, McAlister, Doherty, Hodgson, Wigglesworth, Faure, M Jones, Roberts, Chabal, Schofield, C. Jones, Briggs, Lobbe (captain). Replacements: Turner, Sheridan, Cockbain, Fearns, Peel, Keil, M Tait

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