Henry Pollock seals deal as Northampton dent Sale’s play-off hopes

Northampton claimed a thrilling 43-29 bonus-point win which lifted them to the Prem summit and put a major dent in Sale’s play-off hopes.

With a host of England stars on display for both sides, the fare served up was of the highest quality but it was Saints who deservedly took the spoils to underline their title credentials.

Phil Dowson’s men outscored their hosts by seven tries to four, touching down through Tommy Freeman, Rory Hutchinson, Robbie Smith, Edoardo Todaro, Josh Kemeny, Alex Coles and Henry Pollock.

Sale, who suffered a club-record 77-7 defeat at Toulouse last weekend in the Champions Cup, showed impressive resilience to fight back after going 14-0 down early on.

They scored tries through Raffi Quirke, Joe Carpenter and a brace from Tom O’Flaherty, but it was not enough as Northampton showed their championship mettle to win at Sale for the first time since March 2017.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Sale

29 - 43

Full-time

Northampton

All Stats and Data

Northampton led in the seventh minute when a clever pass from Alex Mitchell found Freeman advancing at pace to touch down from close range for a try which Anthony Belleau converted.

Saints soon scored again when some neat passing culminated in Hutchinson crossing inside the left channel.

Belleau again applied the conversion to put his team 14-0 up but Sale finally had a foothold when scrum-half Quirke darted over from close range and George Ford’s conversion cut Northampton’s lead in half.

From there Sale steadied themselves and began to enjoy more possession and territory but in the 33rd minute they lost Tom Curry to the sin bin.

Referee Anthony Woodthorpe showed the England forward a yellow card for head-on-head contact on Kemeny, but immediately after the interval Sale scored.

It came from full-back Carpenter, who dived over from close range after excellent handling from Van Rhyn, Quirke and Ford before Carpenter finished off the move.

Ford missed the conversion attempt to Carpenter’s try but Sale led for the first time at 15-14 – only for Northampton to come back strongly and regain the advantage.

Hooker Smith squeezed over from point-blank range and fly-half Belleau added the extras but Sale scored again in the 55th minute when centre Rekeiti Ma’asi-White broke in midfield.

The centre showed intelligence to find O’Flaherty in support to his right but remarkably Northampton regained the lead two minutes later to score their fourth try and clinch a bonus point.

Mitchell found replacement George Furbank and his offload found Todaro out wide on the right wing, with the Italian having enough pace to break clear and score.

In the 62nd minute, Sale regained the advantage when O’Flaherty had time and space to field Rob du Preez’s cross-field kick in the right corner and touch down for his second.

England fly-half Ford converted to reach 2,000 Premiership career points and put Sale 29-26 ahead – but Saints soon struck again when Mitchell’s superb break created an opening for Kemeny, who dived over in the left corner.

In the closing stages, Coles went over and then Pollock came off the bench to add Northampton’s seventh – which Furbank converted – to leave Sale’s play-off hopes in tatters.