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George Ford impresses as Sale win at Bristol
England fly-half George Ford was the difference as the playmaking maestro inspired Sale to a 27-13 win over Bristol at Ashton Gate.
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Sharks secured their fourth win of the season, coming away with a bonus point after tries from Arron Reed, Sam James, Rob du Preez and Joe Carpenter plus seven points from the boot of Ford.
Bears crossed early in the contest through Josh Cauldfield, with Callum Sheedy adding two penalties and the conversion for seven points but could not muster a late score to earn a consolation losing bonus point against the frugal Sale defence.
Bristol’s scrum, boosted by the return of Kyle Sinckler, got the hosts off to a positive start, pushing Sale backwards on their own put-in to allow Sheedy a shot at goal from 50 metres but the Welshman’s effort fell just short.
However, just a couple minutes later Sale flanker Ben Curry was yellow-carded for taking Rich Lane out in the air and the Bears quickly made the most of the one-man advantage.
Lane was heavily involved again, using his dancing feet before backing himself on the outside to bounce out of an attempted tackle from Du Preez before offloading off the turf to Virimi Vakatawa, who calmly sucked in the final defender before feeding Caulfield to canter in. Sheedy converted.
Sale responded with patient play, drawing a penalty advantage with their close-range catch and drive game from a 5m lineout to allow the backline to take a risk.
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That brought reward with Tom Roebuck arcing a wide pass into the arms of Reed who had the pace to touch down in the left-hand corner despite the best efforts of Lane to drive him into touch.
Ford missed the touchline conversion but made amends a couple of minutes later as the hero of Marseille for England repeated his World Cup heroics by dropping a goal from the edge of the 22 to hand the visitors the lead, 8-7 at the break.
After points were at a premium in the first half, they came quickly after the break, with Sheedy slotting a penalty only for Sale to strike back with a try off the training ground, with Ford perfectly picking out James with a miss-pass to put the full-back through a gap and under the posts.
Moments later, Sale skipper Du Preez picked off a pass from Benhard Janse van Rensburg and ran it home from 65m out with a finger being laid on him. Ford was unable to add the extras.
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But the England star was quickly back to his playmaking best as he slipped an inside pass to Cobus Wiese who galloped through the Bristol line before linking up with Carpenter to finish with a dive and ensure the points for Sale.
Comments on RugbyPass
Ben Smith please write up something better than this. The Springboks would have won the world cup if you were 15 men on the field. They would have found a way, they always find a way to beat the All Blacks.
159 Go to commentsWow, there is a lot of “could have” and “ should have” in this waist of time dribble. I love the deportation in this story to search for a glimpse at a silver lining. Here are the facts, NZ was a badly coached and undisciplined shadow of their former glory. They never took the lead in a game they were never going to win.
159 Go to commentsGOTTA MAKE ‘THE GEORGE’ HAPPEN!!!! That’s a great idea! A trans Tasman midget battle on ANZAC Day. I don’t think the ABs Wallabies game should be a one off winner takes all though, just the first match with the other two later in the year with the RC. Reason being, no one will ever shut up about how aussies couldn’t win it when it was a 3 match series.
1 Go to comments@Ben smith. Thats knock out rugby. So honeslty who cares?
159 Go to commentsIt will interesting to know which Irish players said that…
1 Go to commentsNaaaww boys will be boys! Now run along ya wee scamp! Don’t let us catch you at again😏
1 Go to commentsGreat to have Ethan Blackadder back in the Crusaders in the last few weeks. One of the best all round loose forwards around. He played so well last week against the Rebels. Fantastic attitude Ethan has and his comments are spot on.
2 Go to commentsThe author is 100% right. The Springboks know that they don't have near the natural attraction, mana, skill and mystic the All Blacks have. So, Chasing the sun 1 & 2 was concocted to overblow the Boks image on the back of a corruptly obtained “win". It's marketing ploy to force the Boks delusion as the World's Best. I guess World Rugby is also not to be believed when it came out with an apology about how the final was officiated. And if the 2023 final such a superb game by the Boks, then the Boks crying about Referee Bryce Lawrence for decades is also deserves a laugh. Chase the sun and get burned like a moth. A very well written literary piece that tore the Boks and Chasing the sun farce to shreds. 🖤All Blacks🏉
159 Go to commentsI’d say France was far more hard done by in the 2011 final than the All Blacks in this game. Joubert simply refused to call a penalty against the All Blacks in the last quarter even directing an All Black to drop a ball he picked up in an offside position rather than penalizing him. This article also totally discounts the efforts of PSTD. Ask Jordie how well he played. Or the backup flank who played hooker for the entire game. Siya was also a brilliant tackle by Richie from scoring a blinder. Pollard was also fantastic. Look I don’t like the boks style but the only thing more questionable than the content of this article is the timing of it. Get over it already
159 Go to commentsDad Marty was also a handy rugby player for Linwood back in the day. Great bloke. Sensational softball career.
2 Go to commentsWhat ifs are always dangerous. If you look at the game before Sam cane got sent of SA was dominating. You could make the argument the going down to 14 men rallied the troops and made them have to play to win which is always dangerous.
159 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
159 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
159 Go to commentsThis is the single worst piece of journalism I have ever seen since your last one. As a neutral, who really states that there should be an asterisk next to a win? You are an utter embarrassment to real AB fans, journalism and that joke of a house which pays you for this nonsense. Get a life, Ben.
159 Go to commentsGuys. Cancel the World Cup champions after this analysis. It changes everything. Ben knows. We’ll have to unengrave the Bokke off the trophy and hand it to the ABs, now that I’ve been enlightened about this illegitimate win. This needs to be done. Now!
159 Go to commentsBen is right here though, Springboks were woefully poor with the advantage they had throughout this game. The France match was heroic because that was an even contest this match had it taken place in Rugby Championship would have been an easy win for NZ. If anything this match should tell the Bok coaches that a lot of this team should be changed. They beat this same NZ team by record margin with the same circumstances but with a different core. They bring back the tried and tested guys and they nearly botch this game.
159 Go to commentsI knew who wrote this article from the first few words in the headline…lol. The red card actually did the ABs a favour. It galvanized them, only then did they step up a gear. Before that there was zero momentum.
159 Go to commentsFirstly the foul on Bongi was a planned move just like the NZ master plan with Bryce Lawrence you kiwis are filthy fux perhaps try to play a cleaner game next time I doubt that’s possible tho but don’t worry world rugby is on yr side they trying to take away all the BOKS strengths to help all you weakling as Jeremy Clarkson would say LA OO ZA ERR..🤣
159 Go to commentsAbsolutely spot on Ben. I certainly wouldn't gloat over a win like that. Frustrating as it is it's done and dusted and history will forever show the result.
159 Go to commentsHo hum.
159 Go to comments