Sale get silver

By pitprop
December 17 2003

A trip to exotic climes and rugby to boot. A goodly number of Sale fans left the chill of Cheshire for the balm of Biarritz. Among them, pitprop: who gives us this viewpoint on the weekend.

Liked Biarritz a lot, fancy being able to watch rugby on a December evening in balmy conditions!

The home side boasted some good players, their pack went well in the loose and tight. But in my opinion, they were there for the taking. Local opinion also said so (those I spoke to in my limited French), that's what I thought through the game as well. They capitalised well on Sale mistakes, but showed little of the expected French flair.

Sale's lineout was terrific, nicking home ball I'd say on five occasions. But the scrum was stuffed, and we had no answer to their rolling maul (we just had to observe that the Irish refs weren't penalising the French for pulling down!). Our own forward drives went reasonably well, but we are not yet strong enough (despite the bolstering presence of recent recruits Cairns, White and Sheridan) at preventing penetration by the opposition. (And while I'm talking of refs, I still can't work out why at an attacking scrum on the Biarritz line the French No 1 was allowed to collapse it twice (once directly in front of the ref) by diving inward, and as soon as the scrum went down a third time Sheri was penalised for boring in - it was probably the same prat I saw wandering around the Biarritz town centre before the game in his Heineken Cup tracksuit - and no I'm not bitter!!!!!)

The kicking out of hand was poor throughout the game - giving possession away to the likes of Brusque and Marlu is never a good idea. The try in the first minute effectively sealed the game - you could almost see Biarritz swell inside their shirts with the confidence it gave them.

Our defence was good in parts - some tackles were thunderous, but some were ineffectual, ushering Biarritz into the back field. In contrast our backs could not break into the Biarritz backfield, with Jason well-marshalled. Thought 007 and Frank the best of our backs.

Captaincy? Not too many players have greater respect in the game than Jason. But I don't think he is yet a rugby union captain. He is still learning the nuances of the game, as I'm sure he will admit. On possibly three occasions BVS could have kicked for goal, long range but it was as calm as a millpond (lovely sunset!). Those possible points could have put us back in the game. But we kicked for position, and as the result shows, no scoring ensued.

Why did we loose? I didn't think we were flexible enough to alter our approach when one avenue was blocked. It seemed to me that not every player believed Sale could win. And despite the presence of some of the players from the Bourgoin parody last season, not enough of the boys seemed to know how big an effort it does take to win in France. And too many mistakes. (Mrs pitprop was heard to remark that some of them were still on the bus!)

Disappointed - too bloody right! Sale displayed enough good things to suggest that a good performance would have won us the game. Instead a team that was not at the top of its game was gifted sufficient unforced errors to score four tries against us and earn a precious bonus point, and frankly we got what we deserved. We are still naive at this level. Cardiff should have been put away, and four tries (and a bonus) scored. Instead they were allowed to come right back into it, and to walk away with a bonus point.

I now feel pessimistic about our Heineken Cup campaign. I know form fluctuates, but currently I feel that we will finish third in the group. On present progress it will take another two to three seasons to make the quarters. And that's providing we qualify. But I know too that pessism is also temporary!

Off-field activities - ate a lot, too much probably! Inappropriate off-field activities? None that I saw, but again I was not in the bars where reputedly they occurred. The bad news was that I heard a lot of stories (so any evidence I have is hearsay) - enough in fact to hint that all was not totally professional. The good news is that some of what I heard was contradictory. Unfortunately, what seems to me to have been Sale's biggest travelling crowd since the Biro final (they were everywhere! Good on yer folks!) probably heard it all too, and on top of palpable disappointment in the manner of defeat, it was not a good mixture.

Reflecting on our Biarritz visit as we sat in sunshine yesterday on the prom watching the surfers (and not too muffled up!!), Mrs pitprop and I hoped that our next French trip would be more successful on the rugby front, but it will be difficult to beat the setting.