Once their backs had cottoned on to this fact, Mapletoft and his threequarters made much of their freedom and having threatened Leicester's defence on a number of occasions in the first half broke through early in the second to set up a stirring climax.With Gloucester trailing 12-3, Craig Emmerson turned Leicester's disorientated backs one way, then the other, before being carried towards the line on the full tide of the Gloucester support. To make matters worse their alignment in midfield was so horribly askew, with Stuart Potter unaccountably being sucked infield, that Gloucester found acres of space wide out. This meant that Leicester had to throw long to Eric Miller at the tail and although Miller is one of the most athletic forwards in the game he was often at a loss to get anywhere near Richard Cockerill's ill-judged throws.On top of this, Gloucester's backs were infinitely more penetrative and imaginative with the ball in their hands than their opposite numbers who, for the most part, were predictable and leaden-footed by comparison. If Martin Johnson just about held on to his dignity at the front of the line-out, Neil Fletcher was taken apart by the Gloucester captain Dave Sims in the middle. The Shed was packed to overflowing, the wit and banter was constant and continuous and the ferociously partisan crowd roared in blinkered appreciation of their beloved Gloucester and in baying disapproval of the opposition and, for most of the time, of the referee Steve Lander, who was not the most popular figure.Gloucester gained in strength throughout the match, and the fact that Leicester's famed continuity between back row and half-backs so often broke down was tribute to Gloucester's planning and tackling.Gloucester's defence around the fringes was of the highest order but it was their supremacy in the line-out which contributed to one of the most uncomfortable afternoons the Leicester pack have experienced for a long time. Joel Stransky finished the game with 21 points from five penalties and two drop goals and seldom can he have been given more opportunities to demonstrate his undoubted class than yesterday.From the kick-off when Mark Mapletoft, his opposite number, drilled the ball straight to him, allowing the South African the time and the space to bang the ball 40 yards downfield into touch, to the two priceless drop goals in as many minutes late in the game, Stransky oozed class.It was wonderfully reminiscent of days gone by. Indiscipline in the first half cost them a match that for long periods they fully deserved to win and, more important, a place in next month's Cup final at Twickenham.That Gloucester should have surrendered so much of their excellent work was bad enough, but to allow themselves to be picked off by probably the best kicker of a ball in the world today was sheer madness.

Gloucester 13 Leicester 26 To the watching masses of home supporters there were times when this looked very much like a case of a death wish among the Gloucester players. Sale were safely through to their first final, and had the added satisfaction of getting there over the prone bodies of the team who, more than any other, symbolise in the north the lasting domination of London values on the England game.Sale: J Mallinder (capt); D Rees, J Baxendell, A Hadley, T Beim; S Mannix, D Morris; P Winstanley, S Diamond, A Smith, D Baldwin, J Fowler, D Erskine, J Mitchell,D O'Brady.Harlequins: B Challinor (J Williams,58); D O'Leary, P Mesah, W Carling (Sckeyter,69), S Bromley; T Lacroix, H Harries (N Walshe,67); J Leonard (capt), T Billups, L Benezech, A Snow (G Allison,62), G Llewellyn, R Jenkins, L Cabannes, W Davison.Referee: T Spreadbury (Bristol).. Lacroix converted, but by now the score was simply a matter of saving face. Harlequins were still to have the last word, Gareth Llewellyn scoring from a line-out turned maul on the Sale line. The last to go was Carling, who limped off to a chorus of "Why was he born so beautiful?" from the pitiless massed choir of jubilant Sale supporters.

That was it.Harlequins were now in some disarray, replacing four players within the space of 11 minutes. Tom Beim, the Sale left-wing, who could scarcely believe his good fortune, swooped to pluck it from the ground and was off on a long diagonal run that covered more than half the length of the field, and though with the shortest of leads and the ball to carry, he went clean towards the right corner to touch down. This time the culprit was their full-back, Paul Challinor, who lost the ball in his own half. Lacroix and Mannix exchanged further penalties, which kept the game dampened down, and then came the second dropped pass, which denied Harlequins any hope of recovery. He went through for the try, and although Mannix failed with the conversion, he kicked his second penalty to give Sale an 18-6 lead at the interval.After that it was simply a question of hanging on. Without checking a step he swept forward with a speed unexpected in a 31-year-old unreasonably disregarded by the England set-up. This came about from a wonderful pass which Jim Mallinder, their veteran full-back and captain, took with an athletic lunge forward as the pass from Mannix threatened to swish past him.

As Harlequins continued to press, the normally sticky fingers of Peter Mensah pushed forward Will Carling's pass just short of the line and near enough to the goal to make a conversion a reasonable certainty.So instead of Harlequins being 13-10 ahead, within three minutes they were 15-6 down and mired in problems. Then came the passage of action which decisively swung the game in Sale's favour. From a quick penalty, Adrian Hadley made a cutting run through the centre and typically it was the flanker, Dylan O'Brady, who was on his shoulder in support to take the final pass and score under the posts.Lacroix again pulled three points back, after Sale had moved Harlequins away from a pressure point beneath their posts, but only at the expense of conceding a penalty in the corner. They moved the ball from the start, the halves combining with the back-row and, although an early penalty from their stand-off Simon Mannix was almost immediately countered by Harlequins' Thierry Lacroix, by the 11th minute they had taken a lead which they were never to lose.