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The three facets of play that are costing Sale the most penalties
Alex Sanderson has vowed to improve the on-pitch discipline at Sale, but not at the cost of the physicality that makes them a competitive side in the Gallagher Premiership and the Heineken Champions Cup. The Sharks are by no means the English league’s worst offenders as they currently only check in at seventh on the most penalties conceded list, their 110 Premiership total a far rosier number than the biggest offenders Bath and their 130 infringements.
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However, rookie director of rugby Sanderson admits his team doesn’t help itself at times. Having gotten through the opening eight matches of their league campaign coughing up only three yellow cards and one red, their behaviour has come in for scrutiny in their two most recent outings.
Bryon McGuigan was red-carded for a needless mixed martial arts-style intervention at Saracens. It landed him a three-game suspension, and Sale then failed to kick on to secure a four-try bonus in their opening round European match at Ospreys last Sunday.
Three tries had the comfortably 21-3 ahead after just 24 minutes but a pair of yellow cards for Lood de Jager and Ben Curry and the concession of 18 penalties in total left them stuttering through the remainder of a match that also had a disciplinary hearing sequel, Nick Schonert getting banned for two games for a collision after he had dangerously entered a maul.
Sanderson now wants his Sale team to improve its behaviour, but not to such a draconian level where it stops them from being competitive. Ahead of the round two European game at home to Clermont, a match that was postponed on Friday due to tightened virus regulations in France, the Sale boss reflected on his team’s general level of discipline which has given the club a bit of an unwanted reputation.
Ewan Ashman didn’t even get to train with Glasgow last month as he was urgently called back to Sale…#Sale #GallagherPrem #HeinekenChampionsCup #Glasgowhttps://t.co/GSe9G4wcJn
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 16, 2021
“I tend not to listen to public opinion, I probably wouldn’t have a job if I did,” he said, but he admitted the concessions of a high number of penalties does take a toll. “Of course it does and it affects performance, but the alternative is we give away five penalties and we are not competitive or not physical. If I had a choice, I’d rather give away ten to twelve penalties and be on the edge, but more often than not we seem to tip over. We are trying to find where that edge is. Is it individuals and being that bit more aware in the context of the game? We are massively physical, very competitive and with that comes an ill-discipline with Sale and that would be our own perception of ourselves. It is something we want to remedy without losing that physicality that we have.”
Asked what areas do Sale most infringe in, Sanderson said: “Offsides, off feet in attacking breakdown and also when we are jackaling for balls, and the scrum has been a consistent issue in terms of collapsing or someone taking an angle.” The Sale boss added that he has had referees visit his squad to help them brush up on their discipline, but that is something he would like to do more often as well as practising more on the training ground how to handle the periods when they are down a man to a sin-bin or a red card.
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“We probably need to more, definitely. We have had referees down three times and had someone down about four weeks ago during the Prem Cup,” he said when asked about referee visits before moving on to how much they train for going a man down. “Not a massive amount. We have done more in the past, maybe we should do more again.
“There is scenario planning and of course the position they get sent off has a massive impact on the defensive system and/or how you approach the breakdown. We have certain fixes and go to depending on what position goes off for set-piece defence and a clear message so we have got a shared mental model of what the plan is for that ten minutes.
“What happened last weekend with Ben going off for not releasing, accumulative penalties, Ospreys at that time had the rub of the green in the scrums and the maul, so it was a pretty easy plan. We took a winger off, put JP du Preez (a lock) on and said, ‘Right, we have got to win this up front’. Marland (Yarde), you have got to swap sides and chase every kick… we will scrum and maul and we will wrest back that momentum. That gives you an example of last weekend what we did. That is just one scenario. It could be different depending on what the game needs.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Andy Goode cant kick to 12
161 Go to commentsDoxed himself. Great work Johnny. You are well suited to the Saders
1 Go to comments_Best game players _
1 Go to commentsWho's Jarrad Hohepa?
1 Go to commentsSo let me get this straight. Say you have the dominant scrum. You are 99% sure you can go for a scrum pushover try on the line to win the game. The opposition knows it too. They give away a silly tap kick instead. You are now not allowed to scrum. This is ridiculous! *%@ing the game up as usual! The fact that the attacking teams are not allowed to scrum from a held up over the line is just as ridiculous. Really world rugby? Careful people might start a rebel league called True Rugby or Real Rugby.
76 Go to comments12 subs during a game? How has that been allowed to happen NB? I hate when the game goes in this monopolistic direction closing up shop, it just becomes non sport. Btw have you seen anything of how Liam Coltman was tracking for Lyon? He has just signed to return to Otago though we have a couple of young hookers developing here. He was a popular gentle natured character down here and I’m glad to see him back but maybe he will be a mentor primarily?
4 Go to commentsGreat breakdown and the global politics always confuses me a little. The southern hemisphere seems to be left out a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start with fixing it. Club challenge could be a step in the right direction
4 Go to commentsSince he coached Free state, from that time onwards, I maintained he was the coach for the Boks. A nice, no nonsense guy with an excellent brain, who gets results.
11 Go to commentswell - they only played against 14 men and had the TMO team on their side - and still should have lost… so actually that makes sense.
33 Go to commentsSouthern hemisphere Rugby is exactly that, boring. Northern Hemisphere Rugby is soooo much more entertaining and better with better players.
2 Go to commentsIf he was to be cited for a dangerous behavior, then it’s natural that he should be. Then NTamack too, yes? And I’ll add a good whataboutism - Yeandle eye-gouging on Richie Arnold: not cited. Eye-gouging. Not high tackle. Eye-gouging. It was on French TV, with French TV directors.
5 Go to commentsReally poorly written rambling piece ..
4 Go to commentsIt was so boring
2 Go to commentspersonally I’d go with : 1. France 2. NZ 3. England 4. Ireland 5. Scotland
33 Go to commentsAndy everything becomes easier with experience therefor counting etc straight after a match becomes easier when you have 100+ caps vs 17 which is the experience you speak from.
161 Go to commentsGetting rid of the Dupont Law is a good thing and ought to have been done months ago! Officially getting rid of the croc roll is a good thing. The law about no scrums from a short arm is well intended in terms of speeding the game up but it’s an overreaction to a clever yet calculated gamble that could have blow up in South Africa’s face if they conceded a penalty from the scrum that was set after Willemse took claimed the mark in the World Cup QF.
76 Go to commentsRassie The GOAT
11 Go to commentsOf their 5 big matches in RWC Scotland and NZ were the easiest. They took a 12-3 lead against NZ and after the red decided it was best to hold the lead and take chances that came. None came and it was tight but they dug a lot deeper in the other two knock out matches. They had trounced NZ in Twickenham in a fixture that NZ must now regret. Psychology was clearly with SA in the final as a result.
33 Go to commentsMy favourite line/exchanges from Chasing the Sun 2. News headline: “SA. The last hurdle in ABs World Cup glory”. Something like that. “You’re all just a hurdle. A hop, skip and a jump”. Coming from Rassie and Jacque. Basically - nobody thinks you’re going to win. You’re just a pushover team. Nobody respects you. When the camera shows the players faces, you can see the effect. You can see the rev meters (die moer metertjies) firing up. Mitchell said he felt it prior to the 19 final. He said to Eddie watching the teams warming up that it was going to be a tough day at the office. Wave a red flag in front of South African, and you can expect a reaction. This is not unique - many teams rev themselves. And Bok teams in particular. With horrific consequences (discipline, poor thinking under pressure) because that’s the drawback to using emotion right? But what this Bok team does better than many since 2007 is channel the emotion and stay on task. Despite the emotion. Why, because while Rassie might play mind games - he talks about creating a safe environment. Listen to his recent honorary doctorate acceptance speech. While he uses psychology he creates psychological safety. He’s a damn fine coach. Can’t wait for Pretoria. It’s going to be a hummer.
11 Go to commentsWhat Rassie does for SA is big. It has helped people to unite and see we can win with the right people in place.
11 Go to comments