Sale keep top-four hopes alive with hard-fought win over Newcastle
Sale kept their Gallagher Premiership top-four hopes just about alive with a 35-27 bonus-point win over Newcastle.
The Heineken Cup quarter-finalists deservedly ended their run of three straight home defeats in all competitions, scoring five tries along the way, but the Falcons were right in contention until the final quarter-of-an-hour.
The visitors led at the interval, but Alex Sanderson’s men rallied impressively in the second period on their way to a 10th Premiership win of the season.
The match got off to something of a cagey start at a sun-drenched AJ Bell Stadium with numerous big kicks exchanged before the Falcons started to exert the first real pressure.
After a couple of line-out attempts, the visitors helped George McGuigan crash over in the corner after nine minutes.
The hosts were guilty of some slack handling in those early exchanges, though the Falcons failed to capitalise.
The Sharks got themselves back on terms after 18 minutes.
Making the most of a five-metre line-out, a rolling maul helped push the ball out to Akker van der Merwe, and he stormed over the line, while Rob du Preez was precise in adding the extras from wide out.
With the momentum swinging from end to end, it was the visitors who struck next when Joel Hodgson latched on to a swift pass from Will Welch before darting over unopposed.
Hodgson then aimed a terrific conversion through the posts from the touchline to make it 12-7 to the Falcons.
Such was the quick flow of the game, Sale replied within minutes as Van der Merwe charged past a tackle before diving over out wide, with Du Preez’s superb kick making it 14-12 the hosts.
On the stroke of half-time, Hodgson popped over an easy penalty attempt to turn the tables again and give the Falcons a 15-14 lead at the break.
But the Sharks were straight onto the front foot early in the second period, and barely three minutes had passed when Ben Curry crashed over for a reviewed try as he celebrated his return to action in fine style.
Du Preez’s routine kick made it 21-15, but back came the gutsy Falcons, with Mateo Carreras dodging Faf de Klerk before diving over to drag it back to 21-20.
Sale’s bonus-point score came with 25 minutes left.
Simon Hammersley coasted over after meeting fellow replacement Gus Warr’s sharp pass inside, with Du Preez’s kick putting the Sharks 28-20 ahead.
The hosts belatedly grabbed themselves some breathing space as the final 10 minutes approached courtesy of replacement Ewan Ashman’s converted try.
Matias Orlando claimed a bonus point for the Falcons with a try in the dying seconds, but some solid defensive work from the Sharks ahead of that had ensured that by then the victory was not in doubt.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments