Sharks Sink Teeth into Tigers

Chris Jones
By Jonathan Noad
September 16 2002

Sale Sharks beat Leicester Tigers 29-16 with some great defending in this clash of the top two teams from last season. Try as the Tigers might they were never going to win this game with Sale's determination

Sale’s team spirit and immense defending deservedly won them this game against the European and Premiership Champions in front of a capacity 5,638 crowd.

This was only the second time Sale had beaten Leicester in the league at Heywood Road, so the win was well overdue. The team were cheered on through the entire match to the win in a great atmosphere. I am sure Brian Kennedy will be very pleased indeed with Friday night rugby.

The game started quite slowly with both teams looking a little edgy until a Tim Stimpson penalty on 9 minutes took the Tigers into a 3-0 lead. However two minutes later Sale replied with a penalty of their own from the boot of Charlie Hodgson from which the Sharks never looked back. The Tigers gave away three further penalties to Sales one in the first half which meant the teams went in at half time, Sale leading 12-6. The one negative point in the first half was the loss of Bryan Redpath to bruised ribs who was ably replaced by recent signing Nick Walshe. However, the crowd wanted tries….

Sale came out fighting in the second half and it wasn’t long before a break by Dan Harris led to a try from replacement scrum half Walshe. Harris eluded several Leicester tackles and bulldozed his way towards the line but was held up just short, however, the ball came to Walshe in support to take a typical scrum half’s try. Hodgson, whose place kicking was a bit awry all evening, converted the try with venom.

This seemed to give Leicester a kick up the pants who threw everything into trying to get over the Sale line. Sale’s defence was awesome though - even Steve Hanley putting his all into tackling (great to see by the way!). This period saw Andy Titterell of Sale and Martin Corry of Leicester spend ten minutes each in the sinbin for holding up play. Despite lacking ideas the Tigers kept possession eventually leading to a try by lock Deacon duly converted by the kicking machine which is Tim Stimpson. A further penalty goal by Stimpson took the scores to 19-16. Leicester were still camped in Sale’s 22 but superbly organised defence and tackles form the heart kept them away from the try line. On a break Chris Jones, the young Sale lock grabbed the ball on the half way line and skipped several tackles to score a wonder try over 50 metres despite the attentions of a chasing Austin Healey. The Heywood Road crowd willed Jones all the way over the try line which must be an early contender for try of the season. Hodgson again converted taking the Sharks into a 26-16 lead. A further penalty from the boot of Hodgson took the scores to 29-16 which the Tigers never looked like challenging deep into stoppage time. Referee Spreadbury finally blew the whistle to end this thrilling encounter. You could certainly see at the end of the game what the victory meant to the players.

The Sharks seem to be regaining last season’s momentum now with a highly organised defence. If we were able to bring the backs into the game more some huge scores could be seen from now until the end of season. Next game away at Leeds will not be as easy as the corresponding fixture last season - the Tykes having three wins out of three so far.


Team : Robinson; Cueto, Baxendell, Harris, Hanley; Hodgson, Redpath; Anglesea, Pinkerton, Sanderson; Lines, Jones; Stewart, Titterell, Thorpe.

Replacements : Marais, Yates, Schofield, Perellini, Deane, Going, Walshe

Scorers : Hodgson (5P, 2C), Walshe (T), Jones (T)