SALE PREVIEW: PLEASE POST ALL MATCH RELATED COMMENTS HERE
By The Saracens
October 26 2022
It’s that time again when the call goes out – anyone got a pair of rugby boots? The Autumn Internationals hit most teams hard because not only do the home nations play but so does almost every other rugby playing nation from Samoa and Japan to USA and New Zealand denuding most Premiership Clubs of their best players. In football, the Premiership will pause during the unseasonal World Cup Finals but rugby expects its clubs to carry on with the bare bones. It’s hard to understand how we can market this fabulous sport of ours.
Club Rugby, for those of us who love it, is something special. Anyone who watched last weekend’s game against Exeter on TV might think they’d like to pop along to StoneX to see a live game for themselves. Wouldn’t it be great to see Billy, Maro, Mako, Tizard, Malins the flesh. Wouldn’t it just! Premiership Clubs have taken the shilling, sanctioned an additional week’s International and we the fans are denied out feast. Ok this week it should be just the England guys who are missing but next week we really will be struggling when we lose Tompkins, Pifileti, Theo, de Haas, Mawi, Bello, Wainwright & Christie. Add to our injury list: well we’d be missing Jamie and Faz anyway but there’s also Woolfie, Davies, Maitland, Morris, Taylor, Segun, Harris, Crean, Isiekwe, Adams-Hale and possibly Riccioni. Oh for the days when Yoda felt Sarries’ influence was detrimental to the England team ! That soon changed didn’t it.
Either way, what a shame that this top of the table clash is reduced to an A team match. With clubs already having 2 rest weeks plus the sad demise of Wasps and Wuss liberating another 4 free weeks, you would think the powers that be could arrange things differently. Actually you wouldn’t because that would be sensible! I would love to think something could be put in place for the 6 Nations to help clubs like Sarries who tend to supply more than their fair share of International Players. I’m not holding my breath!
Sale will also be impacted by England call-ups. Raffi Quirke, Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry, Jonny Hill, Bevan Rodd and now Tom Roebuck have been summoned by Yoda. Sale have a long term injury to new signing George Ford. Akker van der Merwe is also out.
Saracens and Sale are the front runners so far this season. Sarries are 6 from 6 having only dropped 1 point, Sale were 5 from 5 but came unstuck against Quins (at home) on Sunday. They will want to put things right on Sunday against the league leaders. From the match report against Quins, it sounds like they have similar problems to us: discipline and the breakdown. The choice of referee could be interesting!
So who’s in and who’s out? As far as the backs are concerned, I’d go with: Daly, Loz, Tompkins, Lewington and another fit winger. Hopefully Maitland or Harris might have recovered otherwise it looks like a debut for Tom Howe. Goodey and Van Zyl at half back. Then the forwards: do we have a fit loosehead? Not sure if Mawi is ready if not looks like Flynn or our new signing Robin Hislop could be pitched straight in. Pifileti & Judge (or Riccioni if he’s fit) complete the front row. Locks: I think Hunter Hill and maybe Theo with Christie, Earl and Wray in the back row. As for the bench? Well as I said bring your boots! Let’s hope that Sarries, who are notoriously tight-lipped about injuries, can produce a couple of dramatic recoveries out of that magic hat. Abracadabra anyone?
Sarries did the double over Sale last season. We will all welcome Alex Sanderson back to StoneX (not sure what’s happened to his hair though). This will be a big ask from some young guys but they’ve shown us before that they can rise to the occasion. They’re gonna need a lot of yeast!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:11:06:22:05:28 by Darraghgirl.
Successful hills are here to stay
Everything must be this way
Gentle streets where people play
Welcome to the Soft Parade
🌻🌻🌻
Innings
Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.
1 Eroni Mawi
2 Kapeli Pifeleti
3 Christian Judge
4 Callum Hunter-Hill
5 Theo McFarland
6 Andy Christie
7 Ben Earl (c)
8 Jackson Wray
9 Ivan van Zyl
10 Manu Vunipola
11 Elliot Daly
12 Nick Tompkins
13 Alex Lozowski
14 Alex Lewington
15 Alex Goode
Replacements:
16 Theo Dan
17 James Flynn
18 Marco Riccioni
19 Andrew Kitchener
20 Toby Knight
21 Ruben de Haas
22 Josh Hallett
23 Sean Maitland
Sale Team
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:10:28:12:40:09 by MGB.
15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Sam James, 12. Sam Hill, 11. Tom O’Flaherty, 10. Robert du Preez, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Simon McIntyre, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. JL du Preez, 7. Ben Curry ©, 8. Daniel du Preez
Replacements:
16. Ewan Ashman, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. James Harper, 19. Jono Ross, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Joe Simpson, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Byron McGuigan.
SUPPORT Help for Heroes:
Help for Heroes
Congratulations Ben Earl
Goode obviously.
McFarland will turn into possibly the most dynamic player I have seen. He must be a beast to play against.
Theo Dan, excellent performance. Have been nervous of hooker, but he really impressed, and I think we are building a solid group there now.
Van Zyl is getting better and better
Earl and Wray too.
Very proud of the boys given how many of the gun team were missing.
Fantastic effort from the lads to soak up the early battering and come out on top.
2nd row now a position of strength …
All yellows correct but Earl's was the only bit of intentional foul play. Daly's just a bit of a minor accident and it is quite hard to see what Tompkins could have done differently. The fact they only scored one try during all of the time we were down is credit to our defence but also indicates some severe limitations on the part of Sale - it was like their forwards didn't trust their backs at all. The one and only time they went wide, they walked it over the line.
Quote:Roger G
, Nick's - technically correct but very harsh, he's more or less stationary and the ball carrier runs head first towards him. The only thing Nick could've done in the time he had was to step aside.
Interesting point, the unscrupulous could run at a stationary player hoping for a minor clash of heads which would be counter-productive. Does the attacker have no duty of care to the defender if he/she is stationary?
Quote:Roger G
Re the yellows - Ben's - deliberate foul play, Elliot's - dangerous carelessness (he wasn't looking at who else might be going for the ball), Nick's - technically correct but very harsh, he's more or less stationary and the ball carrier runs head first towards him. The only thing Nick could've done in the time he had was to step aside.
That’s exactly what I thought. Wasn’t sure that he had any time or ability to avoid head to head but if anything thought the attacker was reckless not the defender
Didn’t realise until I looked at highlights last night just what Nick did to stop Sale scoring a try near the end. He is a very valuable player to the way Sarries play.
Quote:The Bard
Sale are certainly going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Stick Quirke, Ford and Tuilagi into that back line and they will a hard team to beat.
I'm not so sure. Those players will certainly improve their attack but their defence, particularly in midfield, was v poor. Every time we got some decent possession (which wasn't often) we looked like we might score. A side like a full strength Gloucester, who will match them up front, could make mincemeat of them. Unfortunately for Gloucester that game is next week and they will be without Harris, LRZ, Carerras, Hastings etc so a bit harder to call.
That dense improved massively through the game.
On a serious note this was a scriptwriters dream for Mr 339 backed up by great performances across the group. Like may others I was getting prepped for a dismal day but once again the boys refused to bend, fantastic stuff.
Looking forward to the trip to Bristol to see my daughter and grandchildren, I mean the match.
My wife has told me that she's considering ending our marriage due to my utter obsession with rugby.
I'm begging her for one more try!