Sale Sharks Preview Match-related comments to be posted here

Two stars of rugby togeth
By TheSaracens
September 26 2024

The Sharks are circling! This weekend, the Wolfpack come up against Sale Sharks for our first home premiership encounter at the StoneX Stadium this season.

The first home game of the season is rapidly approaching and the Sale Sharks are who await Sarries on Saturday. Saracens have a pretty decent record against Sale – out of the last 15 games, Saracens have won 10 and Sale just 5. Our home record against Sale speaks for itself, with just one home loss to Sale since 2007 which was the 20-10 defeat last season and possibly the most lacklustre game at the StoneX over the 2023-24 season. These are definitely two sides with formerly fairly similar styles of play, strengths and weaknesses however over the last couple of years the two have grown apart with Sale developing a very robust defence and a dangerous backline featuring several potential future internationals (e.g. Joe Carpenter, Aaron Reed etc) whilst Saracens have moved away from the former ‘wolfpack’ game plan to focus more on free-flowing attacking rugby. Whilst it doesn’t always work as effectively against the top sides, it is entertaining to watch and has produced some very high scoring contests, namely the superb Showdown game at the Tottenham stadium where we watched what was free-flowing ‘joue joue’ style rugby at its very best.

Saturday will bring a fiercely competitive game. With the weather set to be a chilly 13 degrees Celsius but some sunny intervals and very little wind, the conditions seem to suit Saracens more expansive game plan better and handling should not be too difficult. Kicking will certainly play an important part. We will need to watch out for the ‘Fordbomb’ as I like to call it, more typically called the spiral bomb. A destructive weapon for any 10 to have in his arsenal, the spiral bomb is something George Ford seems to have perfected over his career. We will need to ensure the scrum is up to the test, this being the main cause for concern during the majority of last season. Sale seem to have some sort of incredible power of churning out great scrummaging props, with Asher Opoku-Fordjour being the latest of their new powerhouses upfront. However having signed Rhys Carre, Phil Brantingham and Fraser Balmain we do have some good oomph in the tight and ought to be able to at least match Sale’s scrummage, especially since Saracens have the advantage of home turf and understanding the best ways of scrummaging on the 3G pitch without losing footing. The lineout is another huge contest, with Saracens key locks such as Nick Isiekwe and Maro Itoje coming up against the monstrously tall (6 foot 8 inches I believe?) Hyron Andrews and Jonny Hill, who is, whilst a superb lineout operator, rather a loose cannon at times.

Some other key matchups include the enormously experienced George Ford against the far younger, less experienced Fergus Burke. Although I believe Burke offers more ball-in-hand and creativity around the field, Ford’s superb game knowledge and ability to read defences could be the key difference in deciding the outcome of this match. I feel openside flankers will also play a huge role – the ‘Battle of the Bens’ Ben Earl v Ben Curry is a decisive battle and one which could determine who receives the nod for the spot in the England shirt. The combination of the Curry brothers in the backrow has caused other teams serious problems in the past and we will certainly have to be on it on Saturday to ensure that we do not fall victim to them too. The centres will also be an area where we must be on top on Saturday – the combination of Sale’s new signing Waisea Nayacalevu and Rob Du-Preez could cause us numerous problems. With Lucio Cinti still away with Argentina, Sam Spink injured for another month minimum and Olly Hartley out for a considerable period, it’s without a doubt an area of weakness in our squad. The lack of any real go-forward and momentum in the midfield last season was noticeable. Having rewatched the Gloucester game, that issue seems to have been (hopefully) vanquished however there’s no denying Sale pose a far sterner midfield test than Gloucester.

The backlines of both teams show larger age differences, with Tom Roebuck, Gus Warr, Joe Carpenter and Aaron Reed all being around 25 or under, whilst our backline still features numerous experienced heads such as Ivan Van-Zyl, Nick Tompkins, Alex Lozowski, Elliot Daly, Alex Goode despite the numerous losses we suffered at the end of last season. It will be interesting to see if Alex Sanderson opts for his young flyers or if he chooses to play a more experienced team to try and combat the Saracens attack.

In short, it seems that this game is a vital one to win and could be a real statement to the other teams in the league if we can beat Sale by a healthy margin. The officials for the game are as follows:

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe

Assistant Referees: Hamish Grant & Wayne Falla

TMO: Rowan Kitt

Woodthorpe seems to be a decent referee who has not been at the centre of any real controversy yet (emphasis on the yet!) but I just hope he allows play to go on with advantage and can referee the scrums without having to do 100 resets.

Saracens v Sale Sharks Preview

Posted by: TheSaracens.com (IP Logged)

Date: 26/09/2024 14:21

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2024:10:07:07:46:05 by Darraghgirl.