Bristol hold on as late yellow card costs Sale
Sale Sharks missed the opportunity to return to the Premiership summit after a 22-14 home defeat to Bristol Bears.
Improving Bears prevailed thanks to a hugely impressive all-round performance as they condemned the hosts to defeat on their own patch following 12 straight home league wins.
It’s now three wins in four games for Pat Lam’s Bears, who defended solidly throughout.
As well as being without the injured George Ford, last season’s Premiership finalists Sale got themselves off to a disappointing start.
Bears were clearly intent on continuing their recent decent momentum domestically, and they went in front early.
Some purposeful approach play paved the way for Harry Randall to barge over close to the posts, with ex-Sharks man AJ MacGinty comfortably adding the extras.
Pat Lam’s charges kept possession well, while Sale looked somewhat off the pace.
It was no major surprise when the Bears doubled their lead shortly before the 20-minute mark, and it was another poor try for the hosts to concede.
An attempted box kick from Gus Warr on halfway was charged down by Joe Batley, with the ball bouncing out ideally into the grasp of Gabriel Ibitoye, who charged over the line almost unopposed.
MacGinty converted as the lead stretched to 14-0.
A charge-down at the other end gave Sale a welcome chance to finally break through after half-an-hour.
This time Jonny Hill was the one to profit, as he blocked a Randall kick and was left to nab an easy try, which Rob Du Preez routinely converted.
The score remained 14-7 to the Bears at the interval, largely thanks to Kieran Marmion’s brilliant last-gasp tackle to deny Joe Carpenter in the corner just before the break.
And it was 19-7 to the Bears just two minutes after the restart.
Skipper Steven Luatua expertly off-loaded to Max Malins, and he sailed over in the corner.
Alex Sanderson made a triple change in a bid to re-energise his Sharks team, as they were staring down the barrel with less than half an hour remaining.
However, with the normally influential Warr now also off the field, Bears continued to hold their hosts at bay.
At one point the visitors were forced to defend for their lives following a spell of intense pressure close to the Bears’ line.
The Sharks kept plugging away, but time was running out.
Their determination was eventually rewarded when Augustin Creevy got over at the back of a maul, and fly-half Du Preez’s accurate kick reduced Sale’s deficit back down to just five points.
But a shot to the head by Sale replacement Ben Bamber then proved costly as MacGinty’s penalty made it 22-14, forfeiting a valuable losing bonus point for the hosts.
Comments on RugbyPass
“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
1 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
3 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
3 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
3 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to comments