Powergen Cup Final

By everyone
April 18 2004

So it's all over, the drama, the hopes and expectations, the interminable coach journey. The game itself will live in the memories of those who watched it, so here is a collection of impressions from those fans...

by Major Boodnok

Cup finals, in any sport, are often dour affairs, controlled more by a desire not to lose rather than a desire to win. But every now and then a game comes along played in a Keegan-esque spirit of wanting to win by scoring more points, rather than by conceding fewer. Such was the game we were treated to at Twickenham.

This game was not won by the dominant team, nor was it won by the outplayed-but-plucky-and-ultimately-victorious team. In a match where the lead changed hands six times and neither team really pulled away from the other, this was a game that was won by the side that happened to have more points on the board when the whistle blew.

It was a game littered with mistakes, but it would be churlish to dwell on them. Mistakes in a game are what tend to make it interesting - perfection is boring. (In baseball, a "perfect" game - for one team, at least - is one where no batsman manages to hit the ball in all nine innings: 27 batters, not one of whom even gets to first base. Like I said, perfection is boring.) So let's not think about the errors, but about the rest of the game: seven tries; the highest aggregate points total (70) in a cup final; two sides who love to run with the ball; a generally good-natured game (despite the prize on offer) and lovely, sunny day on which to enjoy it.

How to summarise such a game? Let others detail the tries, the kicks - the stats. For me, the spirit of the game (and of both teams) was summed up by Sale's first try (allow me a little bit of bias here) - started by a hooker flying like a wing and ended by a wing doing a forward's pick-and-plop.