View from the south stand: Sale 29 Harlequins 23

The Brook Bus Crowd Barometer™ suggested that there would be a decent turnout at this game (officially 7,500-ish)—a good sign, given the poor attendances at the previous couple of matches. By the time we arrived, the tent was fuller than I've seen it in a while and, even so, they hadn't run out of real ale yet, so it was shaping up to be a good day. We just needed the right result to cap it all off. 

Dimes made several changes to the starting XV from last week, notably the entire front row and both half-backs. If this was meant to be a subtle dig at Cips, then it seemed like an excessive attempt to disguise it, so I'll believe him that he was rotating the squad. 

Quins, unlike several recent visitors, managed to wear kit that didn't clash with Sale’s blue shirts. Of interest was the way Quins’ management seem to have put barcodes on the players, presumably to help track them down should they get lost on the way home. 

CipsFord kicked off towards the South Stand and, after a couple of minutes of back-and-forth, was presented with a kickable penalty courtesy of Easter the Elder. We all went off for a brew whilst Ford went through his kick preparations and, when we came back, he put it between the posts. Yes! One in a row! Bring it on! 

Botica restored parity soon after, however, when referee Tempest pinged TJ at the breakdown. 

And for most of the rest of the half, it was a pretty pedestrian affair. Quins seemed to have most of the ball, but they didn't really make huge progress with the possession that they had. Apart from a short period where Quins' forwards threatened the Sale line, the action was all midfield, with lots of running sideways, much endeavour and good intentions, but very little in the way of serious scoring threat. Ford kicked two more penalties (Three in a row! 100%! Woo-hoo! We could hardly contain our excitement) and Botica one for a score of 9-6 with about five minutes till the half-time cuppa. 

But then Haley kicked an up-and-under from inside his own 22. Unfortunately, his path to recovering the ball involved climbing over a Quins player, so the ball went through his fingertips and bounced into Botica's hands. He rumbled forward a bit and passed outside to Visser, who evaded a couple of despairing tackles to score in the corner. Botica kicked the conversion to leave it at 9-13 to Quins at half time. 

So, a fairly dour, forgettable half. Quins had the possession, but Sale had the defence. On the plus side, the forwards were doing a great job, having the better of the scrums, Bryn's Beard nicking a lineout and TJ and Seymour making a right nuisance of themselves at the breakdown. 

The second half started similarly to the first until, following a series of penalties given away by Quins, Sale had a line-out on the 5 metre line. A fast-moving maul is a thing of beauty, and so it was here as TJ took control of the ball and flopped over for the try. Ford kicked the conversion to take the score to 16-13. 

Shortly after that, Marland Yarde seemed to land heavily on his wrist from a (high-ish) tackle by Seymour. Yarde had to leave the pitch—with what looked to be a fairly serious arm injury—to generous applause, and we wish him well. No-one likes to see a serious injury on the field. 

Botica levelled things up from the penalty. 

Dimes changed the front row, Eifi, Briggsy and Mooooooj replaced by Harrison, TT and Vadeeeeeeem. It's such a nice feeling to be able to make that sort of replacement. After so long relying on a first three and some back-ups, we have (for now, anyway) two first-pick front threes. TT and Vadeeeeeeeeem will be missed. 

Cusiter went off after a bang to the head and a few minutes later on came Cipriani. How were things going to go for the last twenty minutes? 

The first thing that was immediately apparent was a raising of the tempo in the backs. They seemed to go up a gear— 

A slight diversion: I've never really grokked that expression; if you want to speed up rapidly in a car, you drop a gear or two, you don't go up a gear. 

—drop a couple of gears and floor the throttle. A bit of a march downfield and there's a penalty for the taking. 

Danny pointed to the posts and a palpable sense of nervous expectation flowed from the crowd. Many couldn't look, even though it was a simple kick. Step back, to the side a bit, pause, look at the ball, look at the posts, step forward, swing leg... 

… the flags went up. 19-16. 

And then we were treated to one of those moves, like last week, that reminds old-timers like me of the glory days back at Heywood Road. From almost out of nowhere, Sam James managed a beautiful offload out of the tackle to Will Addison, who sprinted more than half the length of the field to touch down near the posts with a couple of desperate Quins' defenders hanging off him. 

A Cipriani conversion (!) and Sale had a 10-point lead with under twenty minutes to go. 

Soon after, Cips kicked another penalty (Hal-lelujah, Hal-lelujah) to make the score 29-16. Twelve minutes to go, could they hang on? 

For the next nine minutes, it seemed they could. Then we got the “was it, wasn't it” kick to the corner from Botica. Touch judge said “yep”, North, South, East and West stands all said “no way, guy!”. Touch judge overrules 7,000 spectators, even if we do know better, and a line out it was. Incidentally, you should watch the full highlights just to hear the ref say “Jonathan” when Millsy queried the call. Tempest must have been taking lessons from Nigel Owens. 

Quins formed a maul, which went mostly sideways until replacement scrummy Egerton grabbed the ball, wiggled through a gap and managed to plant the ball on the line. Botica kicked the conversion to give a 100% kicking record across all kickers for the afternoon. 

There were still 17 seconds left, and Quins tried masterfully from the kick-off to keep possession and work the ball downfield. Sale's forwards forced a turnover, though, and Stringer booted the ball dead, leaving the final score at 29-23. 

What do we take from this game? Well, effectively three points. Quins are so close to Sale in the table that their bonus point was like taking a point away. It meant the two teams are level on points, with Sale ahead on points difference. 

On this showing, we have to accept that Ford is a useful back-up fly half, but not the first choice. He did well enough and kicked everything (although none of the kicks were particularly difficult), but the back line never seemed to get going until the change of half backs. 

There wasn't enough time between Stringer coming on and Cipriani following him to decide whether the uptick in tempo was down to Stringer's faster delivery or Danny's extra vision. Maybe a bit of both. I'd like to see whether Stringer can bring more out of Ford. 

Now come two away games: Saints and Wasps. Sale could really do with a win in one of these games. At present Glos, Sale and Quins are in 6th, 7th and 8th, all on 38 points. Wasps in 4th are 5 points ahead. Two defeats could see Sale losing ground on the other teams around them. We have that game in hand, but it's not a cert by any means and, anyway, we want it to potentially help us move up the table, not regain lost ground. 

Looking beyond Danny, Sale need a visionary fly half to bring out the best in the backs and to fully realise Deacon's influence on the team. A 90% kicking rate would be good, but I think there's enough in this team to win it with tries. Anyway, Dave Alred's been around, and we'll still have Arscott next season. It doesn't matter who kicks—Arscott, James, Briggs—but the guy in the 10 shirt has to have summat special.