Well, that was not unexpected, but while it was not as bad as I’d feared, it still hurts.
What makes it worse is that I think we could have won. Bath ruthlessly punished a couple of moments of inattention and we did ourselves no favours by once again buggering up promising attacking positions.
Can we have a moratorium on blaming the ref when we get embarrassed by an opposition move? I don’t care how far Russell was from the mark when he kicked that penalty. I don’t care that the TMO “should have” called it back. I care about why nobody on the Sale team was haring back the moment the penalty was awarded against that very possibility. Why was it left to a forward to make the futile chase? Why wasn’t one of our speedy backs already ahead of the game? The reason players like Russell can be so pivotal is that they tend not to stand around congratulating themselves when they earn a penalty or start questioning when one is awarded against them. No, they are alive to opportunities, to being able to catch out the team that’s still feeling aggrieved and push the advantage to its maximum.
I know it’s fashionable to criticise commentators, with Austin Healey coming in for more than his share, but I find him to be probably the most insightful pundit around. The things he spots can give you a new view of what’s going on out there (once you get past some of his more annoying traits). For example, I remember one game where he made the point that a team was wasting several opportunities because the forwards were standing around high-fiving each other for getting a scrum penalty when they could have taken a quick tap and made serious ground, if not scored.
Since then, I’ve watched for this – at scrums and at rucks and mauls – and he’s dead right. Scrum penalty, the ball’s right there, the scrum half could take a quick tap and be off. But to do that, he’d need the support of his forwards…
… Who are currently standing around, beating their chests like alpha male gorillas and congratulating themselves on doing their job. Ditto if you get a holding-on penalty at a ruck: if you’ve got the ball in your grubby mitts, be prepared to do something quickly with it, rather than take the opportunity for a breather while the fly half wanders over to take the touch kick. Toss it to the scrummy: quick tap and he’s off – and most of the opposition can’t (legally) touch him because they haven’t gone ten metres back.
Not every time, obviously, you keep it as a weapon: how many times did Russell take a quick penalty before that one? He didn’t, that was the first, but he (and the team) were ready for it. We weren’t. It’s as simple as that.
And I’m not having a go just at Sale, here. I’ve seen so many teams – including England – do this: win a penalty, then waste an opportunity by celebrating it, rather than looking to drive home the advantage. And, yes, I know that, more often than not, the opportunity to go quickly is not there: all the more reason to be alert to those times when it is. At which point I refer you to my reasoning on why players such as Finn Russell are so dangerous.
We talk of transitioning from defence to attack and teams that can do that do well: Stormers against us a couple of weeks back; Toulouse every bloody game, and so on. Less talked about, though, is the corresponding need to transition from attack to defence. It’s more difficult to change focus this way because the formerly attacking team now has to retreat, and it’s more difficult to go backwards than to go forwards; so the onus for a successful attack-to-defence transition lies on the players who are not involved in the point of turnover.
Take this game: the forwards had the ball, out towards Sale’s right wing. Now, the instant the referee’s arm went up, pointing to Bath, somebody in the midfield or out left should have been sprinting back toward his own line. No wondering what’s happened, no assuming that there will be a pause in play. Get back, now. If play does pause, so what? But if someone takes the opportunity to hoick the ball upfield for the chaser to run on to, then you’ve already negated most of their advantage by your quick thinking.
Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a rant but it was this, or I could have gone on yet again about the thinking behind suspending the Premiership for the duration of the Six Nations, yet still depriving teams of key players for one round or I could have just thrown my hands in the air and cried “Sod it” to the world at large, before consoling myself with a large whisky.
We’ve got the Premiership Rugby Cup coming up: away to Caldy, then a couple of home fixtures against Doncaster and Newcastle. Do well in those and we could have yet more games to watch in Salford before the resumption of the Premiership.
There’s also the aforementioned Six Nations to slob out in front of: I’m hoping that all of our lads will get at least one chance to strut their stuff on the international stage. (I see that we get double Curry against Ireland, so that’s a start.)
Well, this has all been a bit depressing, so here are a some happier thoughts to leave you with:
We’re seventh. At this point last season, we were eighth.
Tye Raymont came through a baptism of fire with his head held high.
The women won their first game of the season. Away. At Exeter. They have two more games to go, both at home. If you’re a men’s team season ticket holder, you get in free, so get down to Heywood Road and support the women. They deserve it.
an old grey dog 