Sale Match Report
By King Zak
September 10 2012
Lesson to be learned. Sale 16 – 23 Saracens. Saracens had the privilege of being the first visitors to Sale’s new home at the Salford City Stadium, and proved to be party poopers for the home side. With Copthall in mind, I was particularly interested to see how Sale would approach the move to their new home and what the ‘matchday experience’ would be like.
Due to the lack of any local facilities, we arrived early and headed for the Fan’s Bar. I had the pleasure of ordering the first pint of real ale to be served at the ground (they don’t sell real beer at the rugby league games apparently). The bar wasn’t too busy so service wasn’t a problem; however, my next visit highlighted some issues that Sarries will need to consider. The bar had only two service points, the queue was quite lengthy with a waiting time of about 10 minutes! By the time I got to the bar, they were encountering problems serving the beer – this led to much frustration from some home fans (at least I’d managed to get a drink first time!).
Saracens currently use real ale direct from the cask, something I’d recommend for Copthall to avoid the problems encountered at Sale. Oh, and whilst it’s not a problem we’ll have at Copthall; it’s not a good idea to build a new stadium near a ‘water treatment plant’ – it added an interesting aroma to the alfresco beer drinking!
We headed into the ground about 20 minutes before kick off – the queues were once again quite lengthy and it became apparent that many people had been delayed getting to the ground. A couple of Sale fans I spoke to who actually live in Sale had taken 1 ½ hours to get to the ground on public transport – a distance of 6 miles. Problems on the M60 meant a delayed kick off – but it does highlight the problem of having a very limited number of access routes, exacerbated by only one access road into the stadium. There are only four turnstiles to get into the East Stand where they use the hand-held ticket reader. This system was very slow, taking between 10-15 seconds per customer to get in and adding to the frustration of some already disgruntled locals. We eventually made our way to our seats and were somewhat surprised to see that Edward had chosen to spurn the ‘posh’ seats and chosen to watch the first half from the bottom corner of the East Stand (note to EG – should have bought a cap!). There was also the seemingly increasing problem of duplicated tickets – not a problem when the ground is only 2/3 full, but the potential for it to go wrong is obvious.
Oh, that reminds, there was a rugby game on too!!! Sale got the game underway through ‘new boy’ Danny Cipriani and he scored the first points at the new stadium after 3 minutes when Sarries were penalised by the ever popular Dave Pearson. Sarries eventually managed to get control of the ball and their pressure eventually gained reward when Sale were penalised at the breakdown. Hodgson slotted the kick to make it level at 3-3 after 12 mins. Sarries started to take control of the game – they looked willing with ball in hand and, as ever, ruthless in defence. Quick hands from a turn over led to a promising break as firstly Brits and then Ashton moved the ball at pace. Ashton’s final pass was ‘slapped’ down by the last defender – earning a penalty and arguably yellow card. Hodgson added the three points to take Sarries into the lead. The visitors seemed to be in total control although Alex Goode was guilty of a rare misjudgement as his kick to touch, from outside his 22m line, fell well beyond the touchline. There was a fair amount of ‘green space’ between the touchline and perimeter wall and we had already discussed that if kickers, used to playing on narrower grounds, would over hit kicks. It was the only blemish on another immaculate performance from the England fullback.
The next points came courtesy of an excellent ‘kick chase’ by Goode and Wyles following Hodgson’s ‘up and under’. The catcher was penalised for holding onto the ball on the ground and Hodgson took the lead to 3-9 after 22 mins - at this stage it was pretty much one-way traffic and seemed only a matter of time before Sarries crossed the try line. This seemed even more inevitable as Charge down Charlie blocked an attempted clearance by Cipriani. He picked up the lose ball but couldn’t escape the clutches of his opposite number with the line at his mercy. He did manage to get the ball away and just as it seemed Barritt was certain to score – he dropped the ball. Sale cleared to touch, however Sarries extended their lead as the home side were penalised at the lineout and Hodgson made it 3-12. With 30 minutes gone, the general feeling amongst the travelling support that the game should have been won already. One area causing increasing concern was the lineout; Richie Gray seemed to disrupt the usually reliable Borthwick and Brits was having difficulty finding any player in a white shirt, over-throwing the line on several occasions. This deficiency seemed to create doubt in everything the team did and they gradually allowed Sale to get a possession and some forward momentum. They made some sloppy mistakes (e.g. Tomkins picking the ball up in an off-side position; Brits overthrowing the lineout again) and gifted Sale three easy penalties in quick succession to make the score 9-12 at half time.
Sarries started the second period much the same as they had done a week previously at Twickenham, where they ran in two early tries. They were testing the defence down both wings and just when it seemed they had finally found the space to score, a poor pass (I believe from Wyles, but may be wrong!) resulted in Fraser trying to flick the ball up behind himself. All he did was knock it up forSalewinger Will Addison to collect and run 80 metres to score under the posts. Cipriani added the easy conversion and Sale held an unexpected 16-12 lead. Cipriani seemed to grow in confidence and looked like he could open the game up at any point. Tomkins was struggling in defence and attack and it was no surprise when, after another Sale line break through his channel, he was replaced by Owen Farrell after 47 minutes. Further changes were made as Nieto replaced du Plessis (51 mins) and de Kock came on for Wigglesworth (53 mins) as Sarries desperately tried to find some momentum and cutting edge.
They had an opportunity to reduce the deficit following a wonderful catch and run from Goode, taken on by Wyles & Barritt deep intoSaleterritory before the defence were forced to concede the penalty; Hodgson’s kick drifted to the left of the posts from 40 metres out. Saracens continued to be the architects of their own demise as yet another pass went behind the ‘wide man’ as they continued to work the wide channels. Hodgson made amends for his earlier miss by slotting his next effort to bring the visitors within one point with a quarter of the game to play. Botha was replaced by debutant Alistair Hargreaves and Jackson Wray came on for Will Fraser.Salealso started to ring the changes as Corne Uys replaced the hard-working Sam Tuitupo
Borthwick claimed the restart and Sarries took the maul up field with purpose and determination. Brits broke free with the ball and as it moved to the right wing Ashton dashed for the corner. It took the TMO to adjudge he had scored and despite the missed conversion, which rebounded off the post, Sarries were ahead 16-20.
Sale continued to concede a rash of penalties, much to the disquiet of the home support. I was somewhat surprised that, yet again, Mr Pearson didn’t display the yellow card. One of these on 67 mins provided the last points of the game as Hodgson struck his sixth successful penalty goal. There was still time for yet another poor pass to elude Ashton when he looked certain to score and more ill-discipline set up a nervy final two minutes. However, Sale knocked the ball on and from the resulting scrum Mr Pearson awarded Sarries the final penalty, to the howls of derision from the home support.
All in all, not a great game and such poor precision will certainly have a heavy price against Leicester next week. On the playing side, Mako was awarded MotM – if I knew anything about ‘propping’ I’d be able to tell you why! He was excellent again and looks better and better each week. Goode was, well, Goode – just immaculate. He and Ashton work so well together – are you watching Mr Lancaster – well actually he was, along with Mr Farrell senior. The lineout was a shambles but the scrum looked solid. We were too lateral in attack, hence too many passes failing to find their mark.
As for the ground, well, if you close the car parks so people can’t leave after the game, make sure you open more than one bar!! Oh, and get some air fresheners!!
Sale: 15, Miller; 14 Addison, 13 Leota, 12, Tuitupo, 11 Cueto; 10 Cipriani, 9, Peel; 1 Lewis-Roberts, 2 Ward 3 Cobilas; 4 Gray, 5 Myall; 6 Gaskell, 7 Seymour, 8 Vernon
Replacements – 16 Taylor, 17 Dickinson, 18 Thomas, 19 McKenzie, 20 Doyle 21 Cliff, 22, Macleod, 23 Uys
Saracens: 15 Goode; 14 Ashton, 13 Tomkins, 12 Barritt, 11 Wyles; 10 Hodgson, 9 Wigglesworth; 1 Vunipola, 2 Brits, 3 du Plessis; 4 Borthwick, 5 Botha; 6 Brown, 7 Fraser, 8 Joubert
Replacements – 16 George, 17 Saunders, 18 Nieto, 19 Hargreaves, 20 Wray, 21 de Kock, 22 Farrell, 23 Short
Attendance: 7,451
Referee: Dave Pearson
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012:09:18:15:11:17 by TonyTaff.
Regardez mon visage. Suis-je bovvered?
Sorry to have missed the game.....and the fresh smell of a new ground!!
Perhaps that was what was making Dimes eyes water!!!
Well done on the result but we must up the ante for Tiggers.
If Will had held on to Wylesy's flick (who knows?), it could have been a more comfortable scoreline.
As to the SMELL, I've done a little lunchtime research to find that Davyhulme Treatment Works, one of Europe's largest sewage treatment plants that looks after all waste from the Greater Manchester area, is located right on the oppositve bank of the Manchester Ship Canal from the new stadium!
Which bright spark was it to locate the new stadium over there?!
We got a taxi from the Trafford Centre and Taxi marshall and driver all said enjoy the smell and laughed so clearly well known!