Sale Sharks 38 Leeds Carnegie 3

By Whaley Shark
August 17 2013

Well, the weather forecast was pretty dire, and I really wasn’t sure that I wanted to trek down to Heywood Road and watch a Sale Sharks v Leeds mudbath this afternoon. But rugby withdrawal won out, and I went along, and the weather was largely dry, and I thought we looked pretty decent as we ran out comfortable winners…

However, for a friendly match, it really wasn’t very friendly at all, with the very first scrum leading to a series of brawls and Andrei Ostrikov being given ten minutes in the bin to ponder the error of his ways. A fired-up Leeds tried to take advantage and set up some good positions in our 22, but our defence was up to the job and they came away empty handed. The first score was a Tom Arscott try in the eighth minute, originating in a lineout steal on half way, followed by some slick handling at pace down the right.

A couple of stolen line-outs prevented Leeds gaining any momentum over the next few minutes, and even when they did string some phases together, solid defence stopped any real forward progress. Leeds then knocked on to give us a scrum, James Gaskell scooped up an awkward ball and set up a break down the right. Although Leeds cleared Tom Brady’s chip to touch, Mark Easter was able to cross from the resulting lineout. The conversion went wide but, at 12-0 ahead, we were looking fairly comfortable and, while Leeds exerted considerable pressure, our defence was robust and we made some good attacks ourselves, particularly one thrust down the left that almost beat the Leeds defence, and a couple of hefty rolling mauls. Nonetheless, the half ended with no further scoring.

Leeds got off the mark with a penalty just after half time, thanks to an imploding Sale scrum, and then there followed ten evenly-matched minutes with no score, notable mainly for some nice interpassing at speed down the right between Toms Brady and Arscott. Our next try came from scrappy Leeds play in midfield. That allowed James Gaskell to pinch the ball and we moved the ball quickly left for Andy Forsyth to score in the corner.

Leeds seemed to fade as we came into the last quarter of the game. A prolonged spell of Sale possession, with some very physical forward play, led to extreme pressure on the Leeds line and, eventually, a penalty try which took the score to 26-3, with almost 15 minutes still to play. Leeds still showed willing, and battered away in midfield but ended up losing ground to our defence, then conceding apenalty which Dwayne Peel took quickly. That took us up to, then into, the Leeds 22 and some quick recycling and slick passing gave Mark Cueto a try. It was rather déjà vu all over again as Leeds again stalled in midfield, Nick Macleod and Tom Brady tied the Leeds defence in knots to set up an attacking position from which Sam Tuitupou scored. With the conversion, the game finished 38-3.

So what to make of it all? Well, it was a pretty stiff physical test and we stood up to it well. Although Leeds had a good deal of possession and territory, they never really looked like scoring a try. We moved the ball well and seemed to have good pace out wide, though I guess we’ll have a bit less time and space against a Premiership defence. Both Tom Arscott and Andy Forsyth seem to bring something a bit different to the back line so there’s scope to ring the changes. The Leeds pack was certainly pretty hefty and we seemed to have the upper hand in the lineout, stealing several, and the maul, where we rolled a few and mostly stopped Leeds from doing so. The scrum was more even, but I think having more oomph in the second row will help us. The new engagement procedure seems to have replaced faffing around after the put-in with faffing around before, but perhaps we’ll all get used to it.

Good luck to the lads in Cardiff, then roll on September and the real business of the Premiership.