'We’re never going to give up in January and say the season’s dead'

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson was left delighted after his side claimed a thrilling 43-29 bonus-point win which lifted them to the Prem summit and put a major dent in Sale Sharks’ 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.

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.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Northampton

10

8

1

1

43

2

Bath

10

8

2

0

41

3

Bristol

10

8

2

0

37

4

Leicester

10

7

3

0

36

5

Exeter Chiefs

10

6

3

1

35

6

Saracens

10

5

5

0

32

7

Sale

10

3

7

0

20

8

Gloucester

10

1

9

0

11

9

Harlequins

10

2

8

0

10

10

Newcastle

10

1

9

0

5

Dowson said: “Sale are a very good side, so we knew it was going to be nip and tuck, and it was a mad game with the wind which made it pretty chaotic.

“I thought we stuck to our guns enough to get the win in the last 10 minutes.

“I felt we created loads of chances in the first half but didn’t convert them and they then came out straight after half-time and scored.

“Then it was game on, so there are always things we can be better at, but I admire the way we stuck out the plan.

“We’d not won here since 2017, and Sale have lost here just three times in the Premiership in the last three seasons.

“Other sides have struggled to get results up here, so I think that makes it all the sweeter to come here and get the win.”

For Sale the defeat was a massive blow to their play-off hopes and director of rugby Alex Sanderson was forced to concede their top-four prospects are realistically over.

Asked where he felt Sale fell short, Sanderson said: “Quite a few areas – set-piece early on, scrum dominance and collisions around the ruck defensively.

“That led into them having momentum and being able to score almost at will, and then some of our kick-chase later on.

“That’s where we fell short across the 80 minutes and it’s probably where we have fallen short across the season to be honest.

“I think realistically that’s the play-off hopes over, but not the season.

“We’re never going to give up in January and say the season’s dead.

“No, we’re going to get better and there are scalps to take plus two competitions to prioritise – the Champions Cup and the Prem Cup.

“We’ve still got a lot to play for and the desire to be the team that we talked about in pre-season, that’s still there.”