Sale Sharks 24 Exeter Chiefs 30

By Whaley Shark
April 23 2011

Well, we seem to have reached the experimental stage of the season. After last week’s Reebok experience, we’re now, rather unexpectedly, trying summer rugby. Maybe that’ll do the trick and the sunshine will evaporate the spluttering performances we’ve seen so often this season?

Or perhaps not. It seems to me that we produced yet another ‘typical’ Sale performance, letting Exeter get their noses in front with a penalty after eight minutes.  Then we saw 15 minutes of fairly even, scrappy play as neither side could establish dominance though, with hindsight, there were some portents for the rest of the match- several Sale knock-ons, and a ferocious Exeter rolling maul. Finally, the stalemate ended with an Exeter lineout on our 22, followed by a crash ball move to gain ground and several phases to stretch the defence, creating space to let the winger Sestaret cross on the right. So that was 10-0 down after 24 minutes.

A decent spell of possession at the restart was wasted by a knock-on as we approached the Exeter 22, but we got a second bite at the cherry, thanks to an Andy Tuilagi half break, backed up by Nick Macleod, from which we won an easy penalty. Running strongly, Nick Macleod returned the restart to half way, we moved the ball quickly to Will Addison who, just before he vanished under three tacklers, slid the ball left to Chris Bell for a finely worked try. Ten all. The last five minutes of the half were again quite even, and the final action was an attempted drop goal by Exeter, which was charged down by a Sale defender.

The second half was a carbon copy of the first in many ways. First, we gave Exeter a penalty after three minutes then, a few minutes later, we gave them a soft, soft try. We had a good attacking position in their 22, threw out an overambitious, loose pass, and the Exeter winger Jess picked it up and galloped home from long range. Back to ten points down, but it had only taken us ten minutes this time!

There was then a long period of scrappy, unstructured play which ended when we ran an attempted Exeter clearance back, set up in their 22 and battered their defence into submission, Wame Lewaravu scoring for the second week running. We then had the upper hand but handling errors prevented us ever making the advantage tell and, as time began to run out, we started to take risks- the ball bobbling loose as we chucked it around in our 22 sticks vividly in my mind. Exeter took advantage, first kicking a penalty after they had mashed our scrum, and then seizing a loose ball in midfield to give Hayes a long run in with just one minute left on the clock.

At the death, though, we salvaged a bonus point, as James Gaskell penetrated the Exeter defence and we worked the ball to Will Addison for a try. Although time was up, the referee insisted on the restart and the match finally ended with a knock on in the midst of a confused flurry of play in our 22.

Well, as I said at the start, that looked like typical Sale, vintage 2010-2011, to me. A bit lackadaisical, slow to start, and lots of mistakes, with no more than twenty minutes of full throttle. Maybe that’s inevitable, given the instability of this season and the fact that so many players are leaving, and perhaps the only thing to do is grit my teeth and hope that Dimes delivers the goods over the summer. Since I am not going to Gloucester, my season is over and to borrow a phrase ‘That’s all, folks’. I’ll try and keep the board ticking over until next season but if anyone has anything they can contribute, please let me know.

As for man of the match- I’m OK with the official choice of Will Addison, though my personal choice would be Wame Lewaravu. Honourable mention to Nick Macleod too.

Finally, finally, thank you to Charlie, CJ and all the other leavers. I feel I’ve got to know some of you well over many years and some others, well, quite possibly through no fault of yours, I’ve hardly seen you at all. Whatever, thank you all for your contribution to Sale Sharks, and all the best for the future.