Sale Sharks 15 Newcastle Falcons 15

By Cap'n Major Bloodnok
November 29 2015

Back to Premiership action with the visit of bottom-of-the-table Newcastle...

This match did its best to complement the weather: dull, dismal and occasionally atrocious.

Newcastle scored two tries, Sale didn't look like ever getting over. Their first try came from a superb bit of blocking from an offside position by the ref (anyone else notice that he resembled a young Squeaky? – just sayin'), but Newcastle were in a position to score because of Sale's inability to hold on to the ball in a dangerous position.

Danny kicked 5 of 6 penalties—so he missed the last one, so what? He missed one of six; had he put the last one over and missed an earlier one, the score would have been the same, but it somehow it wouldn't have been as bad?

We should not have been in the position of needing a last-minute kick to win the game. And that rests with the whole team, who got sucked into Newcastle's plan and couldn't find a way out. Tactically, this game owed less to the coaching manual than it did to the Chuckle Brothers ("to me"; "to you"...).

This was the game that we seem to get every season where the team just look utterly clueless—as if they're wondering why the ball is a funny shape, and what are they supposed to do with it? Hopefully, it's the only clueless game this season, but I have my doubts.

I left the ground wondering why this team cannot consistently play to the potential that we know it has. Why is there always a blip in the progress we've made?

As I headed back to the coach, I glanced at one of the tellies in the Shark Tank—Saracens 48, Worcester 6 (at the time)—and I had to ask myself, was a draw really such a bad result?

Actually, yes, it was.