Ben Curry: 'People have pigeon-holed us as just bangers'

Sale captain Ben Curry is excited about what the remainder of the season might bring after seeing his side thrash Exeter in their “do or die” clash at AJ Bell Stadium.

The Sharks came into the match on a six-game losing streak in all competitions and with hopes of securing a Premiership play-off spot looking increasingly remote.

However, they returned to winning ways in emphatic fashion after hammering Exeter 41-5 on the back of a hat-trick of tries from Tom Roebuck.

Jake White on Leinster experience

Jake White on Leinster experience

Sale’s bonus-point win means there is now just five points separating Saracens in third spot and the Sharks in eighth heading into what promises to be a tense end to the season.

Curry said: “We have backed ourselves into a corner so realistically it was do or die in every game as we had no other option.

“It’s really exciting now to think what we might do.”

Gus Warr, Raffi Quirke and former Exeter favourite Luke Cowan-Dickie also touched down for the dominant Sharks, who Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson felt could have recorded an even bigger win.

He said: “I’m really proud of the boys and their effort and if I’m being hypercritical, I was disappointed with our execution in the final 10 minutes as we left a couple of scores out there.

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“In recent games a bit of our defence has been optional to say the least and we stressed that we had to recognise what our DNA is and today our defence was spot on.

“The next four weeks in the Premiership will separate the wheat from the chaff and it’s important that you are in form as it’s going to be a really tough end to the season.

“We had some of our bigger bangers back today and people have pigeon-holed us as just bangers, but I think we showed some cute handling and attacking flair out there.”

Exeter had won 13 of their previous 16 matches against Sale and could have moved into the top two with victory.

However, they were convincingly beaten, with a solitary unconverted try from England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso all they had to show for their efforts.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said: “It was the first half that really disappointed me as we allowed Sale to play exactly the game they wanted by slowing the game down.

“So many little things went wrong including giving away silly little penalties, needlessly pushing people in the back, and all these errors allowed Sale easy field-position.”

He added: “We were off today in too many areas to give ourselves any realistic chance of winning as every time we lost the ball, we followed it up by giving away a penalty.

“We were shell-shocked at half-time but we grouped and with 15 or 20 minutes to go, I thought we had a realistic chance of getting a bonus point.

“However, we have to take our hiding and move on as there are days when you get it wrong.”