LOOKING at the season as a whole, you'd have to say we under-achieved."

No, that's not the verdict of some tired and emotional Sale Sharks punter crying into his Printerland Stand beer, but rather the sober reflection from new director of rugby Kingsley Jones.

A second successive fifth-place finish in the Guinness Premiership, a failure to progress from admittedly the toughest-possible Heineken Cup group and three straight defeats in the EDF Energy Cup meant another season without a trophy for the Edgeley Park club.

Of course those statistics only scratch at the surface of what was a real roller-coaster ride for the club.

One that took in everything from a European demolition job on French giants Clermont-Auvergne in sunny central France to a sobering Heineken Cup hammering in rainy Limerick at the hands of Munster.

One that saw Sale set a new league defensive record at the start of the season to being a side that shipped in 30-plus points in four out of five games at the campaign's business end.

If Sale are looking for a common denominator as to why they missed out on the play-off boat for the third year in a row, it lies in those twin impostors of injuries and the Six Nations.

The two factors conspired in some unholy alliance during February and March to send the club plummeting from second to sixth, leaving their Guinness Premiership destiny in the hands of others.

For a club with one of the smallest squads, Sale were especially susceptible to the vagaries of injury and with up to 10 Six Nations stars in the line up you could say it was a disaster simply waiting to happen.

The other destabilising factor was the announcement, made midway through the season, of director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre's intention to step down in May.

The confusion over Saint-Andre's role, particularly following the confirmation in January that he was to take over at Toulon, was an unwanted distraction.

Maybe it would have been better for everyone had PSA been placed on immediate gardening leave.

One other sober lesson to be learned is that never again must opt-out clauses be agreed for players' contracts - which was the case with a number of Saint-Andre's high-profile captures, most notably inspirational skipper Juan Lobbe.

Lobbe's subsequent move to join Saint-Andre at Toulon was proof positive that the policy made Sale hostages to fortune.

Jones' fast-track to the top job at the end of January also served to coincide with a real switchback in styles. From being painted as a side that struggled to score tries but shut the opposition out, Sale were suddenly scoring tries for fun but also leaking them with alarming regularity.

Finding some balance between those two extremes will be a key priority for Jones and his new head coach Jason Robinson.

At least Jones and his class of 2009/10 have the consolation of Heineken Cup rugby to look forward to next season.

But the brutal reality is that whilst the likes of Leicester, Harlequins, London Irish and Bath prepare for this weekend's Premiership play-offs, Sale will instead be looking on from their sofas.

And for what was the most talented squad ever assembled in the club's history that stands for under-achievement in anyone's book. Tweet