Sale Sharks are still in the hunt for two titles and Jim Mallinder, the Director of Rugby, wants that hunt to end sooner rather than later - at the Parker Pen Shield final against Pontypridd at Oxford's The Kassam Stadium on Sunday.

Sale finished runners-up to defending Heineken Cup champions Leicester Tigers and will now meet Gloucester in the Championship play-offs semi-finals on 2 June.

"We have qualified for the Heineken Cup next season as Premiership runners-up," said Mallinder. "But we haven't won anything yet and now we are totally focused on the Parker Pen Shield final - we want to take the trophy back to Manchester.

"Pontypridd's win in the Principality Cup final was fantastic - both for the profile of Sunday's PARKER PEN SHIELD final and for us as a reminder that we will playing the Welsh Cup winners.
"Pontypridd are having a superb end to the season. They may not have had the best first part to the season but they have hit top form recently and, as we are also playing well, we should be in for a great game.

"We played some great rugby in the second half against Wasps, I was delighted with our performance in those 40 minutes.

"I would be lying if I did not admit that, despite the Championship play-offs, the Parker Pen Shield final has been there in our thoughts - it would be very difficult to keep it our of your mind.

"However, it was important that we concentrated on Wasps last weekend because we need consistency, to keep the momentum going.

"We have had a look at them and done a bit of homework on Ponty - as they have done on us - but we don't know all that much about them."

For their part, Pontypridd have just the one shot of making the Heineken Cup come next autumn...as the Parker Pen Shield winners.

"It would be great for us to win on Sunday for the obvious reasons - for the club but also because getting into the Heineken Cup would be the next natural progression for this group of players," said coach Lynn Howells who has turned Pontypridd around since returning to his old club.

"It's not easy to come straight back down to earth after Saturday's Cup Final win, but that's what we have to do with another big game on Sunday.

"Having said that, the players themselves know that they only played for half the game on Saturday so they know there is improvement to be made.
"We had a good meeting this morning (Monday) and a video session so we are now ready for the week ahead.

"We are fully expecting Sunday's game against Sale to be a different level again. They have pace throughout the side - which is their main weapon - and they also have some very good leaders in Robinson, Redpath and Hodgson at outside-half. But by the end of tomorrow we will have a game-plan in place to try to undo their game.

"I expect Sunday's game to be played at international level. Whenever you play English clubs, the pace of the game is a step-up and while the overall standard of English clubs may not be superior to Welsh club rugby, Sunday's game will be played at international pace.

"We are lucky in that I made a conscious choice that we could not fight on all three fronts. So, over the past weeks and even months, we have rotated the squad in order to concentrate on these two matches which means that we still have a bit left in the tank."