OK, it’s the morning after and I can’t leave well enough alone, so I thought I’d reflect a bit on Friday evening’s debacle.
Let’s be clear from the outset: there’s no way I’m watching it again, so I’ll be working from memory and the notes I made at the time.
Normally, I would be pointing to silly penalties as one of the principal culprits but there was only one example of that: when Gus got to his feet after a tackle without releasing the ball. That came just after Rob had kicked us into a three-point lead and led directly to their first try.
But that’s the only silly penalty I can think of unless you include Alex Wills taking out the man in the air. Yes, he was nudged, but he still had a chance to avoid the collision. Had he done that, the penalty could well have gone Sale’s way, because the Saints player looked to have changed direction to my eye.
But you can’t argue silly penalties, because we only gave eight away all night. Northampton, for comparison, gave away eleven.
In fact, let’s look at some stats because they really muddy the waters of understanding how we got so comprehensively trounced.
| Nor | Sale | |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 42% | 58% |
| Territory | 40% | 60% |
| 22 entries | 8 | 10 |
| Lineouts won | 13 | 17 |
| Lineouts lost | 2 | 1 |
| Scrums won | 5 | 9 |
| Scrums lost | 0 | 1 |
| Rucks won | 45 | 75 |
| Turnovers conceded | 21 | 15 |
| Turnovers won | 5 | 9 |
How are those the stats of a team that loses by thirty points?
Maybe this set will shed some light…
| Nor | Sale | |
|---|---|---|
| 22: Points per entry | 5.88 | 1.40 |
| Clean breaks | 13 | 8 |
| Defenders beaten | 15 | 12 |
| Tackle % | 92% | 86% |
All that territory, possession and forward dominance and we—I believe the phrase is—spaffed it up the wall.
But why?
For me, I think we’re looking at a perfect storm mitigating against us. On the one hand, Northampton were at home, had been underperforming and had just come off a bit of a spanking of their own away at Leicester. They needed a reaction and they got it.
On Sale’s side… well, there’s the injury situation, as ever. Bev, Sharky, Ross, Tommy, J-L and WillGriff. Still no Jonny Hill because of reasons. No Ethan Caine, either; is he injured too? Fortunately, we’ve still got SiMac and LCD, whilst Tumy, Asher and James Harper have stepped up and proven that they’re more than good enough.
In the backs, would Raffi and Arron have made a difference to counter Saints’ speed? Would Ford have handled the game a bit better? Would O’Flats have got in their faces a bit more?
I think the biggest problem is that we do not (as of right now) have a centre pairing that is settled and familiar with each other. The only pairing that has a track record is Bedlow and du Preez and we don’t have that because of the injury to Ford. All other pairings are pretty much scratch. That’s what happens when you lose two established centres to France.
When your centres are not fully attuned, the back line breaks down. It’s not because any of them are playing badly, particularly. It just looks that way because they’re not working in harmony: half a second here, half a metre there and balls are spilled, chances are lost. And, of course, any issues in the centres will propagate to the back three.
So, a couple of cogs not quite meshing throw the whole mechanism out of kilter.
And, just to complete the litany of woe, it did feel whilst watching that all the random bounces of the ball went against us: a 50-22 for them, touch in goal for us. There’s probably a huge dose of confirmation bias in there but it did seem as if the gods were against us.
One final point to ponder before we leave this behind as a bad memory and move on. It’s easy to take this game in isolation and see some sort of gulf in ability but look at the table: Played five, won three home games, lost two away games, picked up two try bonus points, fourteen league points. That’s for both of Friday’s teams after Friday’s game.
With Leicester still to play as I write this, there’s a gap opening up between the top three and the likes of us, Saints and Quins. Do you think Saints and Quins are worried about that? Or do they see it as a challenge to be overcome?
Moving on, next week is going to be interesting. Bath away, where we’ve struggled recently. Bath are finding the wherewithal to win games that look lost, so there’s a formidable challenge ahead but, with both teams losing players to the England camp, the playing field might be levelled off a bit.
Losing the Currys will hurt but maybe Jean-Luc will be fit again. If so, we can still put out a decent pack although I do have serious worries at hooker if neither Ethan or Tommy are fit. That could really bite us.
Quite frankly, I think I would be tempted to start Curtis at 10, with Bedlow and RdP in the centres. At least we would then have a centre paring who’ve done it before and done it successfully. If we can get Arron back with maybe Will or O’Flats to cover Roebuck’s absence, then maybe we can give a good account of ourselves. At least pick up a couple of those bonus points that everyone else seems to be helping themselves to.
SAMP™ has us for a narrow win or slightly wider defeat
| Bath | Sale | |
|---|---|---|
| SAMP-5 | 24 | 25 |
| SAMP-10 | 24 | 19 |
I’m not hopeful but… You never know, stranger things have happened. Maybe Russell will come down with the lurgy during the week.
At least we’ve got a break after that to get some guys fit again.
an old grey dog 