Harlequins.................................................19
Sale Sharks...............................................29

IT can’t have been easy being a Sale Sharks fan so far this season.

No-one was expecting miracles after a whirlwind summer of change on and off the pitch, but it’s fair to say up until this weekend the lows have probably outweighed the highs.

But in 80 glorious minutes at the Stoop on Sunday afternoon, Kingsley Jones’ rampant side not only atoned for all the disappointments that have gone before – they also blasted the most resounding of wake-up calls to the rest of Europe.

Certainly for the few hundred hardy Sharks faithful who made the tiring early morning journey down to the Stoop, a four-try Heineken Cup bonanza from the men in white represented the best possible early Christmas present.

While for the rest of the nation watching from the comfort of their living rooms on TV, superb scores from Dwayne Peel; Nick Macleod; David Seymour and Ben Cohen offered concrete proof that when he can roll out all his big guns, Jones has some explosive weapons in his armoury.

A bonus point win away from home was probably above even KJ’s most optimistic pre-match forecasts but that end result, coupled with the surprise defeat of pool five leaders Toulouse at Cardiff on Saturday, means all bets are off as to how the group of death will now pan out.

"We’re seen as underdogs, and I don’t mind that one bit. Struggling Sale, I keep hearing. Fine, but we also have a real chance of reaching the quarter-final," Jones declared.

"We knew we could score tries against this team, as we showed in the first half. Turnovers provided the chance to counter, and while our set-piece was under pressure, we achieved a terrific win in a wide-open pool."

Many of those who have manfully followed the Sharks week in, week out, were of the opinion that a win of this magnitude was coming.

But even the most optimistic couldn’t have foreseen the blistering way Sale set about their task with a dramatic three-try salvo arriving inside the first 20 minutes.

Slick passing, quick fire offloads and dramatic line breaks led to a treble from Peel (seven minutes); Macleod (10) and the outstanding Seymour (20) that stunned the Stoop.

Not that it was all one-way traffic in a pulsating opening 40 minutes.

Quins fly-half Nick Evans and England winger David Strettle replied themselves to keep the game in the melting pot.

And when Nick Easter burrowed his way over four minutes after the re-start, one began to fear the worst.

Instead, the Sharks regrouped and countered with arguably the try of the match, captain for the day Charlie Hodgson orchestrating another backs move that ended with Ben Cohen crashing over in the corner to claim the bonus point try.

Of course, Sale never make life easy on themselves and with their line-out still all at sea and their normally rock-solid scrum given a rough ride, they were forced to defend manfully during the last half hour but never buckled in the face of some intense pressure from the hosts.