'We got out-scrapped really' - Northampton Saints licking their wounds after loss to Sale
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond hailed his side’s performance after they defeated Northampton 22-10 to move up to fourth in the Gallagher Premiership standings.
Chris Ashton, Rohan Janse van Rensburg and Akker van der Merwe all touched down, while Rob du Preez added seven points from the tee.
The result took Sale into the play-off positions and left them just four points behind Exeter, who went ahead of the Saints to the top of the table.
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“Against a side that have been playing well all season and have scored more tries than anybody, I think we managed to look after them in defence quite well,” Diamond said.
“We know they’re good in the first two or three phases, they scored that try where we missed a one-on-one tackle but, apart from that, I thought we handled them quite well.”
Despite a frustrating start to the campaign, which saw Sale struggle to find their rhythm, this was a much-improved effort and Diamond believes that they have the quality to compete at the right end of the Premiership.
“I think we’ve got a squad to operate at the top end of the division,” he said. “We’re missing our locks with Lood (de Jager) and (Josh) Beaumont injured but we seem to have weathered that storm.
“We’re touching the top-four today and top-four at Christmas was always a little bit of a target. We go to Bath next week and who knows where we can be in the next fortnight.”
The only disappointment for the Sharks came in their inability to claim the try bonus-point, which left Diamond frustrated, but the director of rugby hopes that this victory can kick-start a good run of form.
He added: “We had a similar position last year where we beat Bristol here, beat Gloucester away and Saracens at home. We’ve got two home games and an away game again.
“We’ll put all our endeavours into our night out tonight, have a good time and watch Bath tomorrow, before we go down there.”
Sale are now just three points behind Northampton, who lost top spot to the Chiefs, and the Saints’ boss Chris Boyd bemoaned his team’s inaccuracy.
“We got out-scrapped really,” Boyd said. “We were trying to box our way out of trouble and they were fighting their way out of trouble.
“We started poorly, got back to 10-all and then probably dropped two, three or four chances before half-time which could have made the half-time score a little bit different.
“Credit to them, they were allowed to slow our ball down, which had an impact on their line speed, which had an impact on our skills, which had an impact on our decision-making.
“There are not a lot of big fixes, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, we just have to be significantly more accurate at what we do.”
Is Conor Murray still the first choice Irish halfback?:
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 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
3 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 Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 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!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 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.
30 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.
30 Go to comments