London Irish 11 Sale 23

Not so happy now!
By Sarah Braide
February 6 2003

Sale had to work hard on Sunday to beat London Irish at the Madejski stadium, with the teams still neck and neck 70 minutes into the game. Two late tries ensured that Sale bagged the away win but there was no bonus point his time.

Michael Horak scored a try after just five minutes but Barry Everitt would have regretted missing the conversion, because it only took two Charlie Hodgson penalties to put Sale ahead at half time.

Bryan Redpath set Steve Haney up for a try in the second period but, in a reversal of what happened in the first half, Hodgson missed the conversion and Mark Mapletoft scored two penalties to equal the scores by the 70 minute mark. Despite the scoreline, Sale's forwards dominated after the break so it was appropriate that Iain Fullarton's crucial try came from a rolling maul.

Finally Andy Titterell made the score extra flattering for Sale with an injury time try.

It was not a great performance by Sale (one of those where the opposition wonder how we got to second in the league) but the bottom line is that we won and came away with four points. Jim Mallinder was happy with the result:

"I am very pleased with the performance...I thought the pack played admirably while we defended extremely well."

Sale team: Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto, Dan Harris, Graeme Bond, Steve Hanley, Charlie Hodgson, Bryan Redpath (capt), Kevin Yates, Andy Titterrell, Barry Stewart (Pete Anglesea, 67), Chris Jones, Dean Schofield (Iain Fullarton, 72), Pete Anglesea (Stuart Turner, 57), Alex Sanderson, Stuart Pinkerton.

London Irish: Mark Mapletoft; Paul Sackey, Nick Burrows, Brendan Venter, Michael Horak; Barry Everitt, Hentie Martens; Mike Worsley (Neal Hatley, 48), Richard Kirke (Adrian Flavin, 76), Rob Hardwick (Simon Halford, 44), Bob Casey (Glenn Delaney, 67), Nick Kennedy, Paul Gustard (capt), Chris Sheasby, Kieron Dawson (Declan Danaher, 57).