Leeds 29 Sale 29

Cueto on Friday
By Sarah Braide
September 23 2002

Two points for a draw was a fair reward for Sale to take home from Leeds on Friday, considering that eight minutes from time they were fourteen points down.

Charlie Hodgson got the first points on the board after nine minutes but that got Leeds fired up and within five minutes they forced a breach in the Sale defence, flanker Cameron Mather scoring the try. Braam van Straaten converted it.

Charlie scored two more penalties, and Van Straaten one, but the forward power of Leeds was once again to have the better of Sale as they repeatedly recycled the ball and got closer and closer to our line. It was said on the messageboard that Charlie's kicking out of hand was iffy during this game, and indeed this was one occasion where a poor clearance kick resulted in pressure being put on Sale. But that is not to say that any one person was responsible for giving away a try - Leeds were too strong and soon sent Chris Murphy over the line. Again Van Straaten converted. A further Sale penalty put the score at 17-12 at half time.

Sale failed to find a way to break down the Leeds defence for a full half hour after the restart, while Van Straaten continued to pile on the points with three more penalties. But the sin-binning of Diego Albanese in the 70th minute proved to be the turning point as Sale capitalised on the opposition's one man deficit.

First Mark Cueto went over and Charlie converted. Then a bit of teamwork between Cueto and his partner on the opposite wing, Steve Hanley, helped Hanley to Sale's try. Charlie converted to level the scores at 26-26 and looked like he would be the hero of the night when he landed a drop goal a minute into injury time. However Sale conceded a penalty in defending a final Leeds attack, and Van Straaten kicked it to bring the scores equal again. There was a last gasp drop goal attempt from Charlie but it went wide and Sale had to settle for the draw.

So perhaps this wasn't play of the quality that we'd like to see from Sale each week, but in the end Leeds were a good side and the two points for a draw are worth having.

Sale: Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto, Jos Baxendell, Dan Harris (Mel Deane, 47), Steve Hanley, Charlie Hodgson, Nick Walshe, Jim Thorp (Kevin Yates, 60), Charl Marais (Andy Titterrell, 47), Barrie Stewart, Scott Lines (Dean Schofield, 60), Chris Jones, Alex Sanderson, Pete Anglesea, Stuart Pinkerton (capt).

Leeds: Dan Scarbrough, George Harder, Tristan Davies, Braam van Straaten, Diego Albanese, Gordon Ross, Derek Hegarty, Mike Shelley (capt), Mark Regan, Gavin Kerr, Chris Murphy (Stewart Campbell, 68), Tom Palmer, Cameron Mather, Isaac Feaunati, James Ponton (Carl Hogg, 68).