I suppose it’s typical that the day we restart the season is the one that the Met Office says is the hottest day of the year so far. Certainly, a couple of scoops of Bach pale ale were most welcome before retiring to the welcome shade of the South Stand.
I shouldn’t be surprised, but it’s still a bit disappointing to see such a meagre crowd at a match like this. I don’t get it: it’s rugby, it’s Sale and you get an early view of guys who are going to be the nucleus of the team in a few years’ time. What’s not to like?
The game itaelf was… shall we say?… pedestrian. Oh, I know: seven tries to Sale and two for Bedford; plenty of huffing and puffing and running around. But, in the end, there was a strong element of first-game-back syndrome: a bit of rustiness, a bit of roughness in the moves, wanting the lubricant of match time.
For their part, I thought Bedford showed a lot of class. They were always willing to run the ball and had some slick moves. As good as their attack looked, though, it was no match for Sale’s Premiership-tried-and-tested defensive systems, with the result that, for all their neat interplay, they rarely made significant inroads into Sale territory.
The stand-out memory from the match has to be Nye Thomas’s second try: stepping right past the defender, then doing a 180 degree pivot to pass him again on the left before finishing off with a swan dive that Chris Ashton would have been jealous of.
Stand-out players: Nye Thomas, obviously. Rouban Birch impressed in the back row and was rewarded with a deserved try in the second half. I thought that Tom Curtis looked comfortable at fly half: he kicked six of seven, which a decent return by any standard.
It was good to see Conor Doc back from injury and to get a first look at Telusa Veainu at full back. It was also nice to see Luke James back in the mix aftr so long on the periphery.
In the forwards, I thought Tumy Onasanya made the step up from FC well, although I suspect that he’ll need a bit more time before he’s pushing for a Premiership place. Its good to know that we’ve got such talent developing, though. The rest of the pack performed well, with Alex Groves also standing out for me. A few problems at scrum time, which I suspect will be addressed in training befor the next game.
All in all, a decent enough way to ease back into things. Lots of credit to Bedford for their effort but even they’d have to admit that they didn’t pose a gruelling test. We need to ramp up the intensity over the next four rounds, with a view to being in top gear and motoring nicely ready for Northanmpton and the real thing in October.
an old grey dog 