View from the south stand: Sale 38 - Irish 10
By Cap'n Major Bloodnok
February 2 2016
With part 1 of the job done in Europe, it was time to focus on the Premiership for the next 10 weeks until the quarter final against Montpelier. London Irish were the team coming to visit, and we really needed a good win against a team flirting with relegation.
The coach arrived at Ice Station Zebra with plenty of time to take in the atmosphere before the game. We were treated to a decent acoustic rock duo in the Shark Tank, they hadn’t yet run out of real ale and the pig-in-a-bun quieted a grumbling stomach ready for what could easily prove to be a huge banana skin for Sale.
Morning and lunchtime had been fine, if a bit blowy, but ominous grey clouds had been massing for a while. Things could get interesting…
Irish kicked off toward the North Stand, with the wind at their back. After a few minutes of back-and-forth, Bryn Evans left his beard on the wrong side of a ruck and Gerahty gave Irish the first points of the game.
A couple of minutes later, a fine run by Will Addison and a bullocking charge from Josh brought play into the Irish 22. A few more bruising charges saw the ball end up way over on the left, in the hands of Nev Edwards. He was brought down about a foot from the line, but Mooj saw a gap and flopped over to score the first try.
Cips had to take the conversion into the teeth of a gale that was blowing through the gap between South and West stands. His kick was well aimed but it did that comedy Wile E. Coyote thing where it simply stopped in flight and fell vertically well short of the posts. Reports of a small, blue bird seen sniggering in the South stand are probably exaggerated.
Five or six minutes later and Sale had a penalty 5 metres out from the Irish line. Josh picked from the base, charged forward, broke Treviranus and set up the ruck from which Ioane scurried in for the second try. A much simpler conversion this time and things were looking good at 12-3.
At this point, the grey clouds decided to dump their semi-frozen payload – something that was greeted less than enthusiastically on the pitch (and, I suspect, the East and West stands. We were OK; the South stand seems to offer the best protection from the elements.).
The next twenty minutes was mostly a bit of a midfield slugfest, though Irish did manage to squander two scores: one when Gerahty lined up a pretty central penalty, only to see the posts mysteriously move six feet to left and cause the kick to go wide. The other came from a decent series of phases from the Irish forwards, ending with the number 5, Lloyd, about to slide over for a ‘momentum’ try. His loss of control and the subsequent knock-on probably rated about 0.1 farrells on the ‘embarrassing drops’ scale.
Irish were soon rewarded for doggedness as Sale’s scrum started to feel the pressure close to their own line. Two penalties, two resets, a stern talking to for Seymour from the ref and the penalty try was pretty much inevitable.
12-10 at half time was a bit too close for comfort—and a bit closer than the balance of play warranted.
The sun came out for the start of the second half—which must have pleased Irish as it was in their eyes.
This half was one of mostly Sale dominance. Irish tried hard and carried well, but Sale’s defence held and gave them hardly anything to work with.
By contrast, Sale were able to make significant inroads—maybe not entirely at will, but with some regularity.
Five minutes or so into the half and The Two Sammies combined as Sam Isgonnagetya punched through the Irish defence to feed Sam ‘not worked out a nickname yet’ James who twisted, turned, fell over backwards and managed to place the ball on the line. A case of “So it’s a pass from me…”, “…And it’s a try from him”. The conversion made the score a somewhat healthier 19-10.
Watching the backs (and the forwards), I think we can see a significant aspect of Paul Deacon’s influence emerging. Not the actual moves so much as a growing confidence in handling the ball. The phrase “a promising Sale move ended with a knock-on” is now becoming a thing of the past.
Try 4 was a case in point. From a scrum, Sale tried a few moves and things got a bit scrappy, but they recovered well and kept the ball alive to move it left, then right, then left again for Ioane to feed Li’l Nev who scooted over the line to secure the bonus point. 26-10 with the conversion and we were starting to believe. Once upon a time, we’d have been thinking, “there’s still time to throw it all away” and “remember Leicester”. Now, though, we don’t need the points difference to be greater than the number of remaining minutes to be hopeful of the win.
Try number five had even the die-hard pessimists feeling quietly confident (although not saying anything for fear of putting the mouth on it). From a scrum, the ball went right, Cips tried a grubber which came back off an Irish leg, but a deft pick-up from Will Addison kept things going. A couple of passes later and The Man With No Nickname hit the ball at speed, fractured the defence and made 20-30 yards before feeding that man Nev to go in at the left corner. Cips missed the conversion, but now the lead (21 points) was larger than the time remaining. Job done, surely?
Ten minutes later and Sam Isgonnagetya barrelled over from a maul to score the sixth try. The conversion from Ford made it 38-10 and that was game over.
Apart, that is, from Ioane’s 0.2 farrell embarrassing drop in the last couple of minutes as he put down a pass from Bryn’s beard a couple of yards out and with no cover. In his defence, the pass was slightly behind him, but he did have the grace to look suitably sheepish afterwards.
Sale are looking to me like a team with a bit of purpose and a lot of belief. Where might we be if a couple of those close games earlier had gone our way? Higher up the table, certainly. I think this team can make a real fist of the second half of the season and then really build on that for next year.
But… that depends on the core of this side staying here. We really can’t afford to lose the young talent: Haley, James, Harrison, Neild, Beaumont, Addison. These guys are the future of the club and I see them as the names that’ll stand out in a potentially successful Sale team over the next few years.
If they stay.