SALE have been in good form in the Aviva Premiership but we are not too concerned with them ahead of our European Rugby Challenge Cup opener on Sunday, our main focus is getting our own house in order.

It should be a good game against the Sharks at Rodney Parade and we are confident that we can get our European campaign off to a winning start.

Obviously we were disappointed to lose to Ulster in the Guinness Pro12 in Newport last Sunday but there was a lot to be proud about and the performance was a hell of a lot better than against the Scarlets, when we let ourselves down to be honest.

We pushed a very good team all the way and should really have been on the winning side of things.

Once again that was down to our finishing – we spent more than 10 minutes in their 22 but came away with minimal points. All credit to Ulster for their defence but we lacked that killer edge.

Sometimes there can be a knock-on effect from starting a game well, as I’ve experience when coaching Newport this season. If things go your way early on then it all falls into place but we had to be content with penalties after dominating early on against Ulster.

We’re creating but not converting and at this level you can’t afford that.

I am confident that things will click and we would really be in a pickle if we weren’t creating, making line breaks or getting in good areas.

We are not looking for excuses because we have to look internally to improve but I can’t deny that some external factors were frustrating. When 50/50 calls don’t go your way it’s understandable but at times it felt like we weren’t getting rewards for our hard work.

Maybe that’s down to our perception – if we built a reputation for being good at the scrum and driving lineout, which I think we are doing, we eventually should reap the rewards.

The game against Sale provides us with a great chance to put things right; it’s a home game against English opposition and we have to get back to winning ways.

Europe went well for us last season, starting when we went to Paris as underdogs and upset Stade Francais.

We headed there just concentrating on doing our own individual jobs well and then the result looked after itself. We’ll have the same approach this weekend.

Sale are a good side with some quality players who are doing well in England having beaten Worcester and Northampton and come close to a win at Harlequins. However, we can’t worry about them after how things have gone in the past few weeks.

We’ve spent training working hard as a team, learning to play better with each other so that we can convert our chances. Hopefully we’ll show that on the pitch on Sunday afternoon.