Try-drought on a wet night at Edgeley Park

By Stopsy
February 7 2004

Shall we start with the highlights? We didn’t lose! Stopsy Junior and I were sitting under cover in the Cheadle stand, the pies were very nice in the fun bus on the way there.Acting as driver for seven Sale fans and Stopsy Junior for the second time this season displays a certain masochistic streak.

Sitting high up in the Cheadle stand gives one a great view over the water meadow that was Edgeley Park on an incredibly wet night.

The pitch actually held up very well given that the rain didn’t stop all night. A shame for Sale that the 10,500 capacity were treated to possibly one of the worst games I have ever witnessed.

OK I admit the conditions were atrocious but we used to have a number 8 at the club who would have loved them and stuck the ball up his jumper. With very few exceptions the kicking from hand was dreadful from both sides.

Resplendent in black and yellow, Mr Rowden got the game underway. Sale kicked off with a grubber looking for the knock on which we managed not to give.

Tigers were under pressure but couldn’t relieve it as a number of kicks failed to find touch. Five minutes into the game the ball slipped out of a maul and was fly hacked on. A Sale player got to it first and the crowd went wild, the music played and the scoreboard showed Sharks 5 Tigers 0 - then Mr Rowden pointed to the 5 metre line as the Sale player had knocked on, phew!

Now for my sneaky plan, I saw my favourite bit of techno gadgetry and if we could employ it at all of our games we could be sure of never losing again.

The Sale scoreboard started to count back down 5,4,3,2,1,0 we were level again, hurrah!

Tigers still couldn’t get out of their half and Sale looked the more adventurous. After 10 minutes the referee signalled advantage for hands in the ruck, Sale went for the drop and only just missed. Never mind.

Their new signing, Matt Hercus , didn’t miss the penalty though, 3 – 0 to Sale but alas no count back this time. After 20 minutes we got into the Sale half and were awarded a penalty, which Andy Goode slotted over, just! 3-3 the excitement mounts.

A worrying feature about the Tigers currently is that their lineout is a mess. Throughout the evening Sale stole a lot of ball while looking solid on their own throw.

In the scrum, however, we had the upper edge and as the game wore on the Sale front row realised that they could stand up when in retreat without any need to worry about the referee being upset. Given the conditions, the general standard of handling was very good, I still wonder whether flinging the ball about is the best wet-weather tactic to employ.

I must mention Jason Robinson: twice he leapt high to catch a bomb with players all around, twice he got it and relieved the pressure with excellent kicks to touch gaining at least 30 metres. Goode limped off to be replaced by Glenn, Leon shifting to full back where, kicking apart, he had a good game.

Glenn seemed to inject some direct running with ball in hand, just what we needed. Wiggy then went off for the obligatory blood bin to be replaced by Ricky Nebbit and just by coincidence there was a mass brawl shortly afterwards following which, Matt Cairns went to have 10 minutes rest.

Both teams were generally solid under the high ball and that probably had more to do with the standard of the kicks. There was a big gap on our left flank with Freddie being targeted as being weak as a receiver of the ball, so his brother went to help. Henry fielded the ball, got up a good head of steam as he set off on an arcing run only to be brought down with a textbook tackle around the ankles.

Harry is trying for the world belly surfing record, his charge down attempts saw him slide at least 5 metres. We then saw something that made me hope. With Glenn being more direct, the forwards had a platform from which to work. They gained a good 20 metres by picking and driving, it looked really good, it was working and Sale didn’t really have an answer.

Half time came and I looked down to see Razcal and Raz Junior. Although I couldn’t make out the words, the body language said ‘pick and drive could take this. We need a big start and so kick the ball straight into touch.’

The pick and drive was ignored in favour of more solid driving mauls which although they worked were less successful. The kicking game was again Option 1 for both teams and again, in the main, was generally ineffective.

Having said the general standard of handling was good given the conditions, Backy knocked on twice in positions where we had an overlap. Not the weather for a one handed slap to pass the ball out, nice idea though.

Mr Rowden and his touch judge could benefit from reading The Ref’s contributions on this site when a Leicester player was in the air outside the pitch and tapped a kick back into play only for the lineout to be awarded. I must confess, the Sale fans around me were mightily impressed with my new anorak!

Another dust up, Cozza and their 6? off for a rest and we also had the Ashley Rowden
Bizarre Decision Of The Night, he signalled a penalty for Leicester as a Sale player had kicked. I can only assume he had kicked one of ours as to the best of my knowledge kicking the air, turf or ball are not offences, so why not a yellow card? Any way, penalty to Leicester 5m in the Sale half, we go for posts and it nearly reached the 22!

We then had a thrilling game of aerial ping-pong where both sides saw how many times they could kick the ball between the 10m lines without it going into touch, I’m not sure whether it was six or eight times, but it was dull. Jaco then interrupted and hoofed it into the stand to great applause. Leon made a good fist of playing full back but his kicking needs some attention, his unerring aim found the player every time.

To be fair he caught a high one and was isolated. He then dragged four Sale players 10m up the pitch ready for the cavalry to arrive. With time running down, Jim Richards and Ricky replaced Dorian and Darren, this added drive. We then had a scrum in their half with Ollie unmarked way out wide. We won the ball only for Freddie to take it on the charge, get tackled and then penalised for hanging on.

Mercifully the whistle went and I drove the fun bus back to sunny Sandbach.

At least this time none of us were smirking…

Man of the Match – Jones, Robinson, Rowden? I'd better lie low for a
while.