Sale 27 Cardiff 26

By Major Bloodnok
October 19 2009

Some give Sale little hope of progressing from a group containing the likes of Toulouse, Cardiff and Quins, and defeat to Toulouse certainly made the job harder. Could we salvage something from the visit of Cardiff to Edgeley Park?

Several EPS-registered players had been rested against Toulouse under the agreement with the RFU, so several youngsters were blooded in the cauldron of Stade Ernst Wallon. That so many came out of that defeat with credit bodes well for the future, if not for this year.

The home fixture against Cardiff aw the return of Sheridan, Cueto and Matthew Tait (on the bench), as well as the return from injury of Charlie Hodgson. Peel and Hodgson is many Sale fans' ideal half-back pairing, so hopes were high that we would see fast ball, good distribution and the return of a bit of running rugby.

The first twenty minutes appeared to scotch this hope, however, as Cardiff piled on the pressure and pinned Sale into their own half for much of the time. Then something changed. Sale stopped aimlessly kicking the ball away and started to play with ball in hand, keeping it through more than the usual two phases and kick. Gradually the tide turned and, towards half-time, a 3-9 deficit was turned around as the forwards worked away on the Cardiff goal line, eventually going over in huge pile that exercised the fourth official for a good five minutes before awarding the try to Sisa Koyamaibole. Charlie converted, and we were 10-9 up.

Then came one of the more bizarre reffing decisions on a night that had more than its fair share of them. As Cardiff lined up for the kick-off, Berdos was seen having a chat with his touch judge (sorry, assistant ref), as a result of which he sent the Cardiff no. 8, Powell,off for a 10-minute rest.

Three minutes later, a sweet offload by Sisa saw Gaskell race up the pitch and Schoey go over for the try. The conversion meant Sale went into the break 17-9 up.

Within minutes of the restart, another offload from Sisa gave Gaskell a well-deserved try, and we starting to think in terms of a bonus point.

Soon after, Powell scored for the Blues from a rolling maul following a close-range line out. Poor defending, it must be said - this was a fairly regulation try that was notable mainly for its inevitability.

Following a Cardiff penalty that brought the score to 24-19, a good period of Sale pressure resulted in a Hodgson drop goal to put us two scores ahead again with eleven minutes left.

Then came the bad news: a collapsed scrum left Big Ted on the floor with, as it turned out, a dislocated shoulder. Bad news for Sale and for England (and for Big Ted, come to that).

The final excitement of the night came from a silly Sale mistake as they overthrew a 5-metre defensive line out and Cardiff's Sowden Taylor took full advantage. The conversion merely emphasised the importance of Hodgson's earlier drop goal.

James Gaskell was awarded man of the match, but this was a much more encouraging performance, especially after the debacle against Bath two weeks earlier.

We probably won't get out of the group stage, but there's certainly hope for the future.