Tag: Sale Sharks

I thought this was going to be tight but it seems that Sale really do know how to stop Bristol from playing the game that they want to play.

Bristol had more than half the possession and territory, carried more, beat more defenders and made more offloads and passes than Sale.

But it’s quality, not quantity that wins matches (yes, yes, quantity, not quality, of points wins matches, obviously. Just be quiet at the back, there. You know what I meant). Less than half the territory? Maybe, but the territory we had was where it counts – in the 22. Eleven visits for 27 points compared to six visits for seven points. Fewer carries, yes, but 509 metres from 43, as opposed to 378 from 46.

Neat offloads and slick passing look cool but if they get you nothing…

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I’m kind of glad that, during the first twenty minutes, I was making my way to Heywood Road for the Sale FC game, rather than watching this live. Catching up on replay was stressful enough, and I knew what was going to happen. Suffice it to say that, with Ben going to the bin and then Caulfield’s try looking a little too easy for comfort, I could imagine those watching live already suffering from gluteal constriction syndrome.

Ben’s return steadied the ship, though, and Sale gradually started to get back into it. That’s not to say that they weren’t doing that thing of making silly mistakes and losing the initiative, or that Bristol weren’t throwing it around a bit and looking keen: no, it was more that the hits were going in hard, and Bristol, for all their hard work, were making little progress.

Then Sale got a penalty to set up a five-metre line-out. From that, another penalty and another line-out. Then, suddenly, it was Gus to George to Tom Roebuck and a long, looping pass out to Reedy in acres of space out left.

Five minutes later, and more Sale pressure (does Creevy ever stop? “You are the Energiser bunny and I claim my five pounds”) saw Ford pop over a drop goal to give Sale a one-point lead, which they would keep going into half-time. Watching George against Argentina and here against Bristol does make you wonder why the drop goal ever went out of fashion: it’s such a useful threat to have up your sleeve.

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Traditionally, half-time is when the opposition have a think and modify their game plan, whilst Sale come out doing more of the same and proceed to lose the initiative. And, when Sheedy popped over a penalty two minutes into the second half, it looked as if tradition was going to be observed. But tradition is overrated and, three minutes later, a sublime Ford double-pump and laser-accurate pass left Ibitoye wondering what day it was and Sam James strolling over the line for try number two.

We got another boost with Dickie replacing the Energiser bunny to make his Sale debut. The future’s looking good with those two around, TT to come back and some serious talent waiting in the wings and learning from the best.

Bristol responded to the Sale try with a well-worked attack of their own, but a loose pass by van Rensberg went straight into the grateful arms of Rob du Preez, who sprinted eighty-some metres for a welcome try out of the blue.

Sheedy reduced the deficit to seven and, soon after, George failed to restore it to ten. Almost immediately, though, Joe Carpenter – on for RdP – finished off another slick move with the bonus-point try, converted by George, to give us the fourteen-point lead that we would hold on to for the remaining twenty minutes.

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I mentioned at the start that Sale seem to have the measure of Bristol. In the twelve league matches between us, since they came back up in 2016, Bristol have only won three (one drawn). For all the pundits’ praise of Bristol’s attacking style and threat from the back, they’ve only twice put more than 20 points on us in those games.

Even so, a fourteen-point margin is more than I expected and seems more indicative of where Sale are this season than does the Exeter aberration. On recent showing, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect us to at least match last season’s success.

I won’t single out any specific players because I felt this game was a true team performance. Yes, there were periods of sloppy play – and I’m sure they will be addressed in due time – but we also saw some good understanding and smooth interplay in there. More of that and less of the “oops” and we’ll be well set.

Having said that I won’t single anyone out, I should point out that George was the (deserved) Player of the Match (although not for his place-kicking, obviously). Also, it was good to see Dickie make his debut and, like Creevy last week, slot in as if he’d always been there. Joe C picked up as if he’d never been away as well.

And to think we’re still missing Curry, T., James, L., O’Flats and Manu among others.

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And so on to the next one: Newcastle at home on Friday evening.

Dare I say it? This really needs to be a statement win. Yes, I know all the diplomatic guff that players and coaches throw around to avoid appearing cocky – and cockiness is indeed the quickest way to a pratfall – but we have to target a big win here. Partly that would be to continue to erase that 43-point deficit that we’re still carrying around but also to make a statement that visiting teams need to fear us.

We need to attack this game as if it were Sarries or Quins visiting, not the Old Scrotonians 3rd XV. I’m sure Axe will give all the usual talk about not underestimating Newcastle, how they can be a bit of a bogey team for us and how they’ll be smarting from last week. But I want to see us go for a big win: so far, our largest victory margin is fourteen points, let’s try to make it forty. I have a lot of sympathy for any team that’s up against it like Newcastle currently are, but not when they’re playing my team. They can get their morale-boosting wins against other teams, not mine.

The SAMP™ prediction is for a comfortable win:

SAMP–5	Sale 35 – 16 Newcastle
SAMP–10	Sale 27 – 17 Newcastle

Let’s see if we can improve on those scores.