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Sale Sharks 'not so happy' with one area of the win over Quins
Alex Sanderson believes Sale’s lethal attack can carry them all the way to another Gallagher Premiership final after they saw off play-off rivals Harlequins 37-31.
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Arron Reed scored two tries on his 100th Sharks appearance while Ben Curry, Sam Dugdale and Raffi Quirke also crossed at the Salford Community Stadium.
Quins trailed 22-10 at half-time but fought back, with Louis Lynagh scoring two tries and Cadan Murley, Oscar Beard and Luke Northmore also dotting down. Sale held on and now six sixth in the table, one place behind their opponents.
They will likely need two wins from their last three matches to have a chance of making the play-offs and Sanderson is determined they will not be outworked.
“I was really tense towards the end, it was squeaky bum time, as it feels most weeks,” he said.
“I said at half-time you are going to have to work all the way to the final whistle. We had said the same pre-game as well. Byron McGuigan did the pre-game chat and said to the boys, ‘are you prepared to work harder than them for 80 minutes?’.
“I’m so proud of that, proud of the five points, of how we’re attacking at the moment, and we are looking much more dangerous.
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Territory
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“I’m not so happy with how we failed to control the middle of the field, we lost a few of the kicking battles. I think we can work around the corner better, and a little harder defensively, and that would have shored up a couple of tries and meant I haven’t lost some years of my life in the last five minutes.
“Harlequins may have got two points, but if we keep racking up five then we’ll be alright. We had a good start, and it wasn’t so good towards the end but I’ll take it, its five points and that’s brilliant.”
Sale are three points off in-form Bristol and two off Quins, who have won one game fewer.
Quins boss Danny Wilson is convinced bonus points are going to be key and was relieved to see Northmore’s late try bag an extra one for his team.
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“I’ve been saying all season that this race for the Premiership play-offs will come down to bonus points, there’s no doubt about that, you’ve got to get your bonus points,” he said.
“Coming away from home, getting two points is important, we’re a side that is capable in doing that with the tries we can score.
“But the frustration today is more about what we conceded, we scored 31 points away from home and lost, which is disappointing. But there are positives we can take in the two losing bonus points.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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