Sale Sharks 26 Worcester Warriors 10

By Whaley Shark
November 23 2013

Well, at least I made it to SCS this week, though for much of the first half I rather wished I was stuck in a traffic jam again. But here I am, in my seat, waiting for the kick off.......

The first twenty minutes were, however, notable only for one missed and one successful penalty by Warriors, the onset of hypothermia and the persistent smell of burning burgers. Fortunately though, after a bout of kick tennis which left Worcester on our 22, we nicked the ball and, thanks to a neat chip from Danny Ciprani and some powerful running from Sam Tuitoupou, broke out to half way. A quick recycle and a beautifully weighted cross kick from Will Addison left Mark Cueto in acres of space on the left, and he charged in from 30 metres. The rest of the first half passed in a haze of burger smoke and attritional, error-strewn play, though Worcester did threaten our line right at the death.    

We came out after half time with considerably more purpose and pressurised Worcester from the off. We out a penalty into the corner and, as we rumbled towards the try line, the referee stopped play for a small fight which degenerated into a more general brawl. We didn’t, in the end, make that attack tell but, even though Worcester pushed us back to half way, another Warriors error and a quick penalty set us loose and some slick offloading and nice hands in a fairly tight space outflanked the defence and put James Gaskell in on the left.

Even though we were starting to pull ahead of Worcester and were able to blunt their attacks, they were clearly not just going to roll over and a long period of possession gained us no significant ground at all. Equally, Worcester showed no signs of penetrating our defences. The stalemate was broken by Worcester grubber which rebounded from one of our players. Scrambling to recover, they conceded a penalty which we put into touch ten metres out, set up a rolling maul from the lineout and put Dan Braid over for our third try, with just under an hour gone. Could this actually be a try bonus for us? I didn’t dare do any more than think it.

It was pretty much all Worcester for the next ten minutes and eventually we gave them a penalty and they did the kick to touch, lineout, rolling maul thing to us, to take the score to 21-10. We started to get a bit frantic as the clock ran down and we chased the fourth try, with a couple of knock ons, Vadim Cobilas being hauled down a few metres short, and some slightly iffy decision making. With five minutes to go, Dimes freshened things up, swapping Danny Cipriani for Joe Ford and this time we got it right. From a turnover in the Worcester 22, we ran the ball left, then came back right, creating a three-on-one overlap which Tom Arscott exploited to score in the corner. Worcester plugged away to the bitter end though, and they were denied another try from a catch and drive by the TMO. That gave us possession, and we retained it to run down the last minute on the clock.

So it all turned out OK in the end, didn’t it? The first half was pretty turgid stuff and, indeed, while the second half was livelier, it didn’t quite set the heart racing. Maybe there was just a bit too much at stake on a cold night? Nonetheless it was a pretty workmanlike performance. The scrum in particular went well, the back division worked a couple of nice tries and we look like what we are- a mid-table Premiership side. The returning James Gaskell was Man of the Match for me. And Worcester; well, they reminded me so much of us for much of last season, lacking confidence and less than the sum of their parts, playing below their potential. It’ll be long hard slog for them but I guess they can take heart from the way we got out of jail last season.