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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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Stephen Larkham, Mick Byrne, Scott Wisental, Ben Mowen, Les Kiss, Jim McKay, Rod Kafer.
There are plenty of great Australian coaches who could do a better job than Schmidt.
Go to commentsThis piece is nothing more than the result of revisionist fancy of Northern Hemisphere rugby fans. Seeing what they want to see, helped but some surprisingly good results and a desire to get excited about doing something well.
I went back through the 6N highlights and sure enough in every English win I remembered seeing these exact holes on the inside, that are supposedly the fallout out of a Felix Jones system breaking down in the hands of some replacement. Every time the commentators mentioned England being targeted up the seam/around the ruck or whatever. Each game had a try scored on the inside of the blitz, no doubt it was a theme throughout all of their games. Will Jordan specifically says that Holland had design that move to target space he saw during their home series win.
Well I'm here to tell you they were the same holes in a Felix Jones system being built as well. This woe is now sentiment has got to stop. The game is on a high, these games have been fantastic! It is Englands attack that has seen their stocks increase this year, and no doubt that is what SB told him was the teams priority. Or it's simply science, with Englands elite players having worked towards a new player welfare and management system, as part of new partnership with the ERU, that's dictating what the players can and can't put their bodies through.
The only bit of truth in this article is that Felix is not there to work on fixing his defence. England threw away another good chance of winning in the weekend when they froze all enterprise under pressure when no longer playing attacking footy for the second half. That mindset helped (or not helped if you like) of course by all this knee jerk, red brained criticism.
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