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Saracens bite back against Sale Sharks
By Online Editors
Saracens put their off-field issues behind them to secure a convincing 36-22 Gallagher Premiership win over Sale Sharks.
Manu Vunipola, on return from England Under-20s duty, scored 13 points for the hosts as kickers dominated play despite the blustery conditions.
Relegated Saracens extended their unbeaten home league record against the Sharks to 13 matches over 15 years, despite having seven players absent because of the Six Nations.
Sharks, who were looking for a third league win on the bounce, instead lost the opportunity to capitalise on fourth-placed Gloucester’s defeat to Exeter last night.
Within 60 seconds of the start at Allianz Park the Sharks lost a lineout and Rhys Carre gathered the loose ball and carried it over for Sarries.
Winds from Storm Dennis could have suggested a tough fixture for kickers, but Rob Du Preez scored a penalty to put the Sharks on the scoreboard after Sarries failed to roll.
Then the hosts capitalised on three penalties awarded to them after a host of errors from Sharks. Two were converted by Vunipola and one by Alex Lozowski.
Sale got a try back right on half-time. Springbok Dan Du Preez broke through the hosts’ back line, instigating some beautiful passes which ended with the ball in the hands of Byron McGuigan who took it over.
Rob Du Preez’s conversion reduced Sale’s deficit to just four points at the break.
The London side were also the first to add to their tally in the second half, with Rotimi Segun’s try right in the far corner after a period of sustained attacking pressure from Sarries.
After Vunipola’s two-pointer, referee Wayne Barnes awarded Saracens a penalty for dissent from McGuigan. This was kicked from the halfway line for another three points by Vunipola, which put Saracens into a commanding 24-10 lead.
Lock Nick Isiekwe scored Saracens’ next try after 55 minutes. Initially not given, Barnes changed his call after reviewing it on the big screen. Vunipola hit his conversion chance against the swaying posts.
After dogged pressure on the line, the hosts finally got it over through substitute Richard Barrington after playing advantage following a penalty call. Vunipola’s fifth successful kick gave Sarries a 26-point cushion going into the last 11 minutes.
Dan Du Preez drove over the line with nine minutes to go and Rob Du Preez got another with a minute left on the clock, but it was not enough to change the outcome.
Saracens made it their seventh win of the season, despite their relegation due to persistent salary cap breaches, denting Sale’s pursuit of a top-four finish.
PA
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Latest Comments
In another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
Go to commentsBens got a crush on KLA. So cute.
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