Sale Edge Saints in Nervous Season Opener 24-21

Hodgson Match Winner
By Jonathan Noad
September 1 2002

Sale edged Northampton with a superb drop goal from Charlie Hodgso in the season opener at Heywood Road on Friday night. Despite scoring no tries to the Saints two Sale punished the poor discipline of the Saints with the boot of Hodgson to win 24-21.

In a nervy and sometimes bad tempered encounter Sale edged Northampton with an injury time drop goal from fly half Charlie Hodgson. Hodgson performed coolly under pressure throughout the match despite being given particularly attention by the Saints defence. This will surely have done his international chances no harm in front of a watching Clive Woodward.

The Saints started the game livelier than the Sharks with Ben Cohen going over for a try in the corner following a cheeky chip by veteran Paul Grayson that evaded the hands of Mark Cueto. Grayson converted with a superb kick from the touchline. This seemed to give Sale the wake up call they needed and they provided some slick passing to get into the Saints half where the ever-improving Jos Baxendell scored his first drop goal for Sale.

Clearly the Saints were worried by the backs of Sale and gave away a string of penalties, which Hodgson punished with the boot to send Sale into the lead at half time 15-13 up.

At the start of the second half the Sharks gave away a penalty which allowed the Saints into the lead. This was followed shortly after by the first of four sin binnings with Sale’s Stu Pinkerton being the first to leave the field followed shortly after by Saints prop Morris. The game continued with sound defence from both sides. The amount of high tackles was appalling and the referee failed to spot one particularly bad one which laid out Hodgson. Two further sin binnings were for Saints replacement Budgen and Sale’s Dan Harris for an apparent high tackle which Matt Dawson made the most of.

Shortly before the end of the game the Saints frequently challenged the try line of the Sharks which finally led to a score for new signing Oriol Ripol – Grayson missing the conversion. This took the game to 21-21 with a draw seeming inevitable. However in injury time the Sharks led a final flourish putting all effort into getting near the Saints try line, finally with the last kick of the match the ball came to Hodgson just to the left hand side of the posts which he booted solidly and was willed all the way between the sticks by the Heywood Road faithful. Final score 24-21 to the Sharks. Hodgson was named man of the match but Sale veteran Jos Baxendell took the eye with some impressive tackling and attacking not forgetting his drop goal.

This was not champagne rugby with both teams putting up solid defences but it was certainly entertaining and tense stuff for the large 5,313 crowd.

Team : Robinson; Cueto, Baxendell, Deane, Hanley; Hodgson, Redpath; Anglesea, Pinkerton, Sanderson; Schofield, Jones; Stewart, Titterell, Yates.

Replacements : Marais, Thorpe, Lines, Perellini, Harris, Going, Walshe

Scorers : Baxendell (DG), Hodgson (6P, DG)