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'It was his call to get back in a play so quickly after the World Cup'
Sale coach Alex Sanderson hailed the impact of fly-half George Ford as the England playmaker proved the difference in the Sharks’ 27-13 win at Bristol.
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Ford provided seven points with the boot and the 30-year-old was devastating with the ball in hand as he pulled the strings of a Sharks attack that ran in four tries to seal a bonus-point victory on the road.
Aaron Reed, Sam James, Rob du Preez and Joe Carpenter crossed for tries for Sale, with Josh Caulfield going over for Bath’s solitary five-pointer.
“George looked silky in attack, really silky,” said Sanderson.
“That is the part of our game we have been looking to grow and the part of his game he wants to prove he is one of the best at and not just landing drop goals from 50 metres. He can do it all can’t he?
Match Summary 
2
Penalty Goals
0
1
Tries
4
1
Conversions
2
0
Drop Goals
1
163
Carries
105
6
Line Breaks
9
17
Turnovers Lost
9
5
Turnovers Won
9
“It was his call to get back in a play so quickly after the World Cup and he actually looks better than last season. He has come back with a bit more zip in his step, really attacking the line well.
“But I was most impressed by the physical battle out there and the fact that we won most of the collisions is pleasing and makes everything easier.”
“They were knocking on the door in the last quarter and it was pleasing the way our bench stuck in there. We probably worked harder than we have ever worked.”
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Victory takes Sharks to within a point of the summit after five matches, with only Harlequins matching their four wins to open the new campaign.
By contrast, defeat in front of their home faithful leaves Bears outside the fledgling play-off places with two wins from their opening five.
Director of rugby Pat Lam revealed his disappointment with the way his side coped with the pressure of dealing with a player of Ford’s match-winning ability.
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He said: “George is a class player. We all saw that at the World Cup. He makes a big difference to them but collectively as a team they are a good side.
“They have a clear way they want to play, they want to impose themselves on you, take your time and space away and I felt we didn’t react well to that today.
“We spoke about making short passes and we were making long passes and sometimes you just have to take them. We didn’t adjust too well and panicked under the pressure we were under.
“We know what they are going to bring and unfortunately, we just made too many turnovers at key moments.
“We just panicked and threw the ball around too much. We just needed to relax and build pressure. We talked about that at half-time and trying to create scoreboard pressure.
“I keep saying it but we are not far off. It is fine margins at this level of rugby and little mistakes can have big consequences.”
Comments on RugbyPass
I’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
139 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.
139 Go to commentsOmg… you are bruised And battered Benny. Stop crying … the scoreboard speaks. What a pathetic lover you are.. 🤣🤣🤣
139 Go to commentsPacific Lions, cry me a river
139 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.
139 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!
139 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.
139 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.
139 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..🤣
139 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.
139 Go to commentsHo hum.
139 Go to commentsNo question they were the better team. But that is the beauty of sport isn’t it!
139 Go to commentsEveryone is into Hurling in Ireland according to Porter, but only 11 of Ireland's 32 counties enter a team into the national competition. Same old blarney.
1 Go to commentsLet’s be honest. The draw and scheduling in the World Cup was a joke but South Africa found a way after having to go the hard (nearly impossible) way to the Cup Final via France and England. NZ had a hard game against France (lost) and had 5 weeks to prepare for the Quarter, 3 weeks knowing it was Ireland. NZ theerfore had to win one big game against an Irish team who played SA and then Scotland 7 days before. They won and it was de facto a semi final because they were playing a relatively weak Argentina team and it was a walk over. In the final a very rested NZ team was playing a very tired SA team and still lost. They couldn’t score more than 11 points. Put another way SA had to find a way to win while tired and they achieved that. NZ should thank their lucky stars that they fixed the scheduling in 2015 otherwise they would be dealing with a Bok treble.
139 Go to commentsPerhaps if Bongi wasn’t targeted and removed from the game in the first 3 minutes it would have been quite a different game. Maybe if NZ also faced the same competition the Boks faced to their win NZ would have looked quite different. The final score shows who outplayed who.
139 Go to commentsRubbish article! Abuladze played most of Exeters matches when fit. He got injured against Glasgow a while ago and is out for the rest of the season, thats why he hasnt played for Exeter and Georgia recently. Do some proper research next time!
1 Go to commentsGotta love it when kids throw their toys out the pram and can’t hack it with the grown ups debate. Here’s looking at you turlough! 😉🤣
148 Go to commentsThey lost the game period move on
139 Go to commentsSpringboks won! Stop winging. You can change the game however much you and your rugby colonizing IRB want to and the Springboks will win you at that too. Your mind is colonized my friend get a life
139 Go to comments