Sale v Cetransa El Salvador 8 Oct 2010

By Whaley Shark
October 9 2010

My father was fond of saying “Scores in the first ten minutes don’t mean anything” and by the end of last night he’d certainly have been rehearsing another of his favourite phrases- “I won’t say I told you so!”. So just because Charlie threw an interception in the first few minutes, allowing centre Jaike Carter to score, we really shouldn’t have worried. But it didn’t seem like that at ten to eight yesterday evening, 5-0 down against Cetransa El Salvador (Who?).

 

Our game plan looked quite simple, attack all the time, from anywhere. If you lose the ball, don’t worry, because you’ll get it back at the breakdown, at the scrum, or at the lineout. And that’s pretty much how it turned out. El Salvador were beaten for pace, fitness, organisation, technique, and the final score of 97-11 shows just how much they were outclassed. That said, they never stopped trying- they tackled, and fought, and scrummaged, but they couldn’t do anything to stop the onslaught.

Our tries were many and varied- first Sisa scored a pushover from an attacking scrum, set up after an El Salvador quick lineout went wrong. Then Brightwell broke loose from the restart and, with support from Sisa , we made it to the El Salvador ten metre line. Quick ball from the breakdown gave us a two man overlap on the left and Nick Macleod crossed. After a penalty to El Salvador, we set up a good attacking position from the restart and Andy Tuialgi battered his way through their defence. Then a textbook sequence of penalty to touch, roll the maul from the lineout, run the ball wide, recycling the ball through several phases, and send Tom Brady flying over in the corner. Bonus point secured after 22 minutes!

The El Salvador defence stiffened a bit then and, while both Ben Cohen and Sisa came close, they didn’t score. However the pressure on them was endless and one of several strong runs by Ben Cohen set up a try for Chris Brightwell. Our final score of the half came from an attacking scrum, from which we rolled a maul, spun the ball left and put Fergus Mulchrone, on for Andy Tuilagi, in. The last score of the half was a long range drop goal by Ian Davey of El Salvador, so we changed round at 36-11.

The first action of the second half allowed Will Cliff to rocket away from an attacking scrum, draw the last defender, and feed Nick Macleod, who went over on the right. Then, keeping the pressure on by taking scrums whenever El Salvador conceded penalties, we shunted their pack backwards for Chris Brightwell to touch down and bring up 50 points. El Salvador then had a moment of pressure, penetrating into our 22 before knocking on. From the scrum Brightwell made ground well into El Salvador territory and Ben Cohen came inside to score on the hour.

The next ten minutes saw five tries. First, from a 22 dropout which Rob Miller sent the wrong way, Ben Cohen made ground up the left wing and, although he was hauled down, he had good support and Chris Jones scored. Then Tom Brady beat his opposite number for pace and crossed again, after the El Salvador defence had been stretched by two or three phases of play. Chris Bell, who’d got through a good deal of low profile, unflashy work, then got into the action and, jinking at pace, shredded the defence. Generously, he passed to debutant Rob Miller to get him off the mark. Briggsy, just on for Chris Jones, had an immediate impact, breaking loose up the middle and, via the supporting Neil McMillan, putting in Fergus Mulchrone again. The scoring spree concluded with Tom Brady, one-on-one, tying the last defender in knots and flying in under the posts for his hat trick.

As the ton beckoned for us, El Salvador’s resolve stiffened, but we set up one more good attack and, from a scrum in the El Salvador 22, Neil McMillan fed Chris Leck who crossed. The end came with El Salvador in possession, kicking the ball out to end a long evening for them.

In conclusion, it’s difficult to know what to make of a comprehensive win against outclassed opponents. Our restarts and handling were scrappy, but how much of that reflected our confidence that we would be able to recover possession at will, I don’t know. Both Jones and Cox were effective and it was good to see them back in action. My man of the match- Will Cliff, with honourable mentions to Ben Cohen and Chris Brightwell.

The final word for El Salvador though. Once upon a time I played in a team which was on the receiving end of a battering like that. It’s a soul-destroying experience, and it takes real courage to keep going when you know you are beyond hope. So my respect and thanks to them for giving it a bloody good go.