SALE may not lift the Guinness Premiership title this season - but they now look dead certs to be crowned king of the cock-ups.

That's the only conclusion to be drawn from yesterday's damning verdict by a disciplinary panel which fined the Sharks £5,000 and, crucially, docked them a point for fielding an unregistered player.

The penalty was meted out by an RFU and Premier Rugby hearing after Sale chose to field hooker David Ward as a late substitute during their 38-20 defeat at Harlequins on March 22.

Crucially, the Sharks had failed to re-register Ward following the hooker's loan spell at Manchester before including him on the bench for that match.

And the loss of that single point now looks like sounding the final death knell for any faint hopes the club had of forcing their way into the end-of-season play-offs ahead of Saturday's league finale at home to Northampton.

Even before Monday's news, Kingsley Jones' men needed to record a bonus-point win over the Saints and hope other results went their way.

Blow

Now after this latest hammer blow, which at a stroke wiped out the advantage of last Friday's home bonus point win over Quins, Sale are in need of a rugby miracle.

The error, which chief executive James Jennings admitted on the club's behalf, has been blamed by Sale officials on a gross failure of internal communication and administrative procedures.

As if to further highlight the farcical nature of the gaffe, Ward only featured for those costly eight minutes in south-west London as a result of an injury crisis which crippled the club last month.

It was Ward's only competitive Guinness Premiership appearance since his arrival as emergency front row cover from Northampton last Autumn. His only other game time was as a substitute in two EDF Cup games late last year and he will not be part of the squad going into next season.

Ward had been de-registered by the Sharks' academy bosses on January 27 in order to play for Manchester, but this information was not communicated to team management.

That oversight was then compounded when Sale registered Jonathan Hamsey on February 25 and received an updated listing of registered players, but failed to notice Ward was now down as unregistered.

Jennings argued an immediate points deduction would not be appropriate as "no rugby advantage was sought or gained".

He added that any points deduction should be suspended because of the impact it could have on Sale's play-off chances.

And he said Sale were "appalled" at the failure not to register Ward in time and had now implemented new procedures.

In the wake of the verdict, Jennings - who is also holding an internal disciplinary review into the matter - was last night holding talks with club lawyer Quentin Smith to determine whether the club will appeal.

Action

They have 14 days to decide so are likely to hold off any final decision until after this weekend's league programme.

Jennings said: "The club are very disappointed that an administration failure has resulted in this sanction.

"The club will now study the decision to consider what further actions, if any, it may take in regards to this matter.

"The club and squad remain totally focused on our final game of the regular season with the objective of securing five points in order to keep our play-off chances alive."

The panel concluded that "professionalism on the pitch must be matched by professionalism off it".

Four previous cases of administrative errors were taken into account, all of which resulted in clubs being deducted at least one point.

Leicester in 2003 and 2007, Saracens in 2003 and Bristol in 2007 were all deducted one point for similar offences.