Sale v Tigers Match Report
By Stopsy
October 8 2012
Friday night game next to the M60 linear car park, one wonders whether the Trafford Centre’s capacity for generating further traffic over Christmas (October – February) will impact the gates further? 8,122 is a good gate number for Sale however the new stadium made it look a paltry attendance. The stadium looks good, as did the pitch, both a great improvement on Edgeley Park.
What I did notice was the distance between the touchlines and the stands and as we saw throughout the game, Sale will develop the art of the quick line out as new visitors fail to kick the ball far enough over the line. I also noted that our coaching team’s PCs were advertising our coaching clinics, smart move whereas Sale’s marketeers seem to think cardboard scrum hats added to the matchday experience!
I have a major problem with this report, as I watched and scribbled what I thought were unique insights into the game, only to hear Stuart Barnes then say them and even worse, looking at the board after the game I saw that a number of us had the same thoughts. Now good reader, you will no doubt disbelieve me, but these notes do reflect my watching of the game and not a simple regurgitation of the views of others.
Shirts, regurgitation number 1, why on earth do we not wear scarlet, green and white when we play Sale, there is never a conflict of colours. To all those who reply commercial interests, I still think there is room for heritage as well as commerciality. As a veritable dinosaur I would have letters, hoops and the crest and indeed suspect there may be one or two others who would by such a shirt.
As the Sky commentary team introduced the TMO I wonder whether he hears the commentary or not during the game, he seemed to smirk as though he knew he was on camera, if so this is a problem as we know that the commentators sometimes see the game differently.
As the teams lined up I was struck by the physical enormity of Gray, who belied the thought that size precludes athleticism throughout the game, I liked what I saw of him.
And so to the game, Sale kicked off Gray chased and messed up our receipt, we fumbled and knocked on, 1st scrum in less than a minute. As a player I always used to hate the games that went on for an age before the 1st scrum all those nerves and even anxiety were a burden to be carried around until you got that out of the way. We were free kicked for early engagement and Sale put down a marker of intent by asking for the scrum to be reset.
McLeod chipped over, Ford tapped back and fortunately it was a player in blue that touched it down for a 5m scrum rather than a player in blue for a try. We won a penalty advantage at that scrum but kicked away to find a good distance but the ball still alive, Sale took the quick line out, brought the ball back to the right hand touch at speed where the ambling Crane was the sole defender Goneva’s tackle was close but no cigar, 5 – 0 down, not an auspicious start.
So we kick off and just to please Yorkie, we kick long and don’t bother chasing. At this point I have to leave the game to understand quite why I am so attractive to a rather shapely Russian lady who seems to want to befriend me. Swear a lot, close the window, re-open and hey presto, Ford has converted a penalty for 5 – 3.
Sale restart and again we fluff it, we have decided to compete on their throw and on both occasions concede a penalty, the latter of which is converted 8 – 3 after 16 minutes. Ben then demonstrated that he has not lost the knack of poor box kicking. The dulcet tones of Barnes are overpowered by announcement that Vanish Oxy Action. Ford then deployed an excellent cross field kick which was well fielded by Cueto under pressure however he picked up a bang for his efforts but stayed on.
We then won a scrum penalty although how Castro’s illegal reset bind was missed I don’t know, perhaps it was the vanish? Ford converts for 8 – 6 after quarter of the game. We then shock by taking possession well at the restart, but never fear we then kick it aimlessly away. At the ensuing ruck the somewhat bulked up figure of Slater smacks them legally for the turnover. Another scrum penalty, the randomiser force is with us. Kick to touch and then a 4 man line out, the ball goes quickly to midfield where a succession of the heavy horse smack it up the middle. We are gaining the upper hand in the scrum and Sale appear only to want to wheel it. Crane fumbles at the back of the scrum but to be fair, Slater moved his foot back just before to knock the ball.
Goneva then proves he is a true Tiger by getting a yellow card which for me was a tad harsh. Sale then piled on the pressure and kicking through our defensive line resulted in a 2nd 5m scrum. The game was pretty low quality fare. The Sale pressure resulted in what was for me a clear try, but thanks to the TMO we could all see that it was a try, all but the TMO, unbelievable.
I do like the aerial shot of the scrum, fortunately due to the power of Vanish Oxy Action the ref was not only blind to Castro’s under arm bind on the inside of the Loosehead’s arm, incidentally my favoured bind in the dim & distant past. The overhead shot also showed Castro boring in consistently. He was not the only front rower playing but we were getting the penalties. More poor box kicking followed, it appears an easy option rather than going through the phases but why surrender the ball.
Interesting to see Allen’s tackling technique, targeting the ball rather than the man, very effective too. Again Sale chipped through and we dealt with it well, our clearance kick went out but the quick lineout was taken. Fortunately the Sale player had a foot in play so it was brought back, As Barnes correctly predicted the hooker had his foot in play too, however the issue is materiality. The quick line out gives a massive advantage, the hooker’s foot changes not a lot.
We then saw Tuilagi tackle Gray, score draw. Allen tackled Gray, again targeting the ball, score draw, I love this game for its variety. Our defensive line is very aggressive and forcing them backwards. Half time comes and we survive being down to 14 men without conceding.
We were playing well in units but no cohesion or fluidity between them, front 5, back 5, half backs, centres, back 3. Pete Anglesea then opined that we were succeeding legally or illegally, that’s rich coming from him.
We started the second half with urgency and good continuity, Mulipola keeping it alive well and earning a penalty 8 – 9 . Powell was obviously getting frustrated and starting to put it about possibly not all legally.
Another scrum penalty, kick to lineout, catch and drive , Thorpe to Tom Youngs and try. 8 – 14. Tom does play more like a 7 in open play. Ford is starting to look tired, Castro wins us another pen with the same bind 8 -17. Cole replaces him.
Is your loo getting clean under the rim? Effing internet! Imagine your carpets this clean...
The atmosphere in the stadium is somewhat flat.
We then show a new lineout move, Youngs to Gray, tap back to ground where Slater retrieves, we have good possession and Sale defend well. Sale then chipped through again, Thompstone turned and outsprinted the attackers to sort it out, remarkable speed, Ford then dummies and clears cooly. Could the reason for Sale being unable to scrimmage straight be due the imbalance in their 2nd Row?
Our defence again was forcing Sale to cede territory. Manu and Powell exchange pleasantries and Manu remains calm. We then saw a great kick into space from Ford but he declined to follow up leaving most of his team offside, Miller ran it back well. We then took a scrum against the head how on earth that can happen these days is amazing to me, unless their 8 kicked it through from the feed. We allow pressure off by throwing not straight at the line out, their 9 breaks but is well handled by Morris.
On a number of occasions we released early in the tackle only for the ball carrier to carry on, some of these laws are rubbish. Morris again tackled well as last man. We then saw a good old fashioned punch up, the Ref communicated well but unfortunately the TMO’s recommendation of a yellow card was of the same accuracy as his previous involvement in Sale’s try.
All in all a good result, a dull game but 4 points in the bag, I fear the next couple of weeks will not be as forgiving.
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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2012:10:12:20:31:14 by Tiggs.
Me too :-(
Sounds no better today.
Now about this Russian lady...
...
How did you feel about the stadium etc.?
