Sale Sharks 22 Leicester Tigers 42

By Whaley Shark
May 4 2014

OK, OK, we get the message. For all that we have developed the ability to compete with mid-table sides, Sarries, Quins and Saints have already shown us that top four teams going for something significant are well capable of seeing us off. And now we have Tigers, chasing a playoff place, to deal with.

While we started brightly, with a fair deal of territory, Tigers had the first scoring opportunity, a penalty which went wide, and after 15 minutes, they took the lead with their first try. All simple stuff really, a scrum on our ten metre line, followed by some direct and penetrating running, and a delicate chip over a disorganised defence let Niki Goneva in.

We pulled back a penalty a few minutes later but Tigers had the momentum now, and we were saved first by the TMO, who disallowed a try for a forward pass, and then by Owen Williams’ squiffy gunsights, as he pulled second penalty wide. As the clock ticked erratically down towards half time, we were fortunate still to be in the game. But then, with a couple of minutes to go, Tigers won a scrum penalty, set up an attacking lineout, powered into our 22, and put Toby Flood over for their second try.

They carried on in the same vein after half time. A Dwayne Peel break took us to the Tigers’ 22, but Tigers broke away down the right and we had to scramble the ball into touch. The lineout let Tigers’ big ball carriers progress into our 22 to set up a score for Niall Morris. Tigers were seriously chasing the try bonus now, and it came before the hour- a penalty to the corner, an attacking lineout, a bit of battering on our line to suck in the defence, and a gap opened up for Toby Flood’s second try. They clearly hadn’t realised they could stop trying now, though, and came straight back from the restart to pressurise our line again. While Toby Flood’s third try was denied by the TMO, Tigers were awarded a penalty try at the resulting 5 metre scrum.

Finally, 35-3 ahead, they did seem to ease off a bit, and seemed content to keep us at arm’s length most of the time, waiting for any further opportunities which might come along. That slight easing of the pressure was enough to give us a couple of opportunities. First, we strung together several phases in the Leicester 22 and eventually Michael Paterson was able to gallop down the left wing to score. As the game went into the last ten minutes, we put a penalty into the corner and worked a nice move from the lineout, sending Henry Thomas round the narrow side and over in the right hand corner. By this point, the match had almost turned into sevens, and we ran the restart straight back at Tigers to give Johnny Leota a fine solo try, swerving his way over the line from half way. We may need to reconsider the Try of the Season shortlist- that one certainly deserves to be on it.

The trouble with chucking the ball around merrily is that it can all go horribly wrong if you lose possession. With just a couple of minutes left, Tom Arscott got a yellow card and Tigers struck back. The TMO denied their first attempt but, from the 5 metre scrum, their replacement scrum half, David Mele, nipped over, and that was that.

I think we were perhaps a bit flattered by the final score. Tigers had the game won within an hour, and we only got back into it when they eased off. Tigers don’t play a complicated game- they do the simple things well, and with considerable power, and we didn’t really have an answer, especially to their slick offloading in the tackle. Faced with all that, our brick wall defence didn’t really materialise and we paid for that. Oh, and I thought the ‘match day experience’ worked really well.