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Eddie Jones received a big Six Nations boost when Manu Tuilagi played the closing 30 minutes of Sale’s Gallagher Premiership win over Harlequins.
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The powerhouse centre has been absent since tearing a hamstring during his country’s Autumn Series win over South Africa, and after making this successful return England supporters will hope he is able to play a role in the later rounds of the Six Nations.
Sale’s prospects of repeating last season’s progressive campaign received a further boost when Tuilagi was joined on the field by South African World Cup winning scrum half Faf De Klerk who has also been a long-term absentee.
Tom Roebuck and Robert Du Preez both scored two tries as the Sharks picked up their first away win in the Gallagher Premiership, and they did it in style with a convincing 36-14 victory over the reigning champions.
It was only a second success for Sale at the Stoop since 2008 but this victory was never in doubt against a subdued Harlequins who badly missed the inspiration of England’s Marcus Smith and Alex Dombrandt.
Ewan Ashman was also on the try-scoring sheet for Sale, with AJ MacGinty adding a penalty and four conversions.
Hugh Tizard and Tommy Allan scored Quins’ tries, with Allan converting both.
Sale had the first chance for points but MacGinty was off-target with a long-range penalty, although he was soon on target with a much easier shot after Raffi Quirke’s elusive run had forced Quins into offending.
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After 16 minutes, Sharks scored the opening try when swift passing from their three-quarters and a well-timed pass from Luke James gave Roebuck the opportunity to squeeze over in the corner.
An excellent touchline conversion from MacGinty into the blustery wind gave the visitors a 10-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Two minutes later, Roebuck picked up his second and again it took some scoring as the wing sailed past Quins full-back Tyrone Green to reward some excellent handling from his inside backs.
The first half continued to be one-way traffic and it came as no surprise when Sale scored their third. Five metres out from the try-line, Quirke tapped a penalty and the hosts’ defence was nowhere as Ashman crashed over.
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Shortly afterwards, Ashman limped off to be replaced by Curtis Langdon before Quins grabbed a lifeline when Viliami Tualani provided Tizard with a scoring pass.
Sale should have denied them that by kicking the ball into touch when the clock was in red. Instead they elected to attack from a position near their own line before losing possession, with Quins taking their opportunity.
Sale still held a handy 22-7 interval lead and they should have extended that when Roebuck intercepted a pass from Danny Care to race away. The wing looked certain for a hat-trick but with a superb cover tackle, Allan dragged him into touch just short of the line.
The visitors suffered another injury setback when Sam James replaced his brother Luke, who was badly shaken up in a tackle.
The next score was crucial and it went Sale’s way when Du Preez dummied his way over to leave Quins needing one of their trademark comebacks.
Allan gave his side a glimmer of hope by nipping through a gap for a converted try but Sale were in no mood to surrender their superiority, with Du Preez scoring his second after a well-judged chip ahead from De Klerk.
Impressive from the pre-tournament favourites in the rain! ??https://t.co/B6elQjSBWv
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) February 6, 2022
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments