Saracens v Sale Sharks Report

The Sharks have been caught and captured. The full match report on today's Saracens match - Saracens v Sale Sharks 3.05pm Saturday 28th September 2024.

Todays encounter at the StoneX was one marred with injuries and numerous interesting refereeing decisions, however it was Saracens and the Wolfpack who emerged victorious in what was absolutely stunning weather.

Sale kicked off playing right to left and it was immediate that their attack was in red-hot mode as they forced Tobias Elliott into a tackle off the ball and thus sarries conceded a penalty. Ford nailed it and the score became 3-0 to Sale. Next up, Ben Earl was penalised as he got himself isolated and failed to release the ball after getting tackled. Ford missed the long range effort so the score remained 3-0. Then began a bizarre series of injuries to the Sale players, first with George Ford limping off due to what seemed to be hamstring trouble (forgive me if im wrong, I could not tell from a distance) and then Jean-Luc du Preez received a concussion and after bad news from the HIA, he had to stay off the field. There was a sizeable delay to the game as a result. Ivan Van-Zyl won a penalty thanks to some fast thinking and this was converted to make the score 3-3.  Interestingly, it seemed Alex Lozowski was doing much of the kicking from the tee instead of Burke. Not entirely sure why that was but I’m sure we will know in due course. Perhaps Burke was carrying a niggle.

Rob Du-Preez certainly had a mixed afternoon missing a key kick to touch however he made up for it by carving through the Saracens defence on the sarries 22 a few minutes later and the ball found its way to Gus Warr who scored for Sale under the posts. This was after an intense period of Sale pressure and Saracens (seemingly) managing to absorb it however eventually the dam broke and the score became a rather worrying 3-10 with 20 minutes or so gone. Daly and Lozowski then both put penalties over making the score 9-10 to sale however then Saracens had their best chance of scoring a try of the game so far. Saracens won a penalty around the 10m line and Daly put in a superb kick a few metres away from the sale line. After a maul and intense Saracens pressure, Sam Dugdale was eventually yellow carded for a high tackle on Ben Earl and Saracens chose to have a shot at goal and thus put the 3 points over to take the lead for the first time in the game. Sale then struck back with a Du-Preez penalty deep into the red and Sale went in the leaders 12-13 ahead.

The second half started with a continuation of the injuries for Sale when Hyron Andrews and Ben Curry clashed heads and both had to come off as a result. Saracens proceeded to kick 2 penalties building a healthier 6 point lead thanks to poor Sale disclipine. Thanks to a pinpoint-precise Alex Lozowski pass, young speedster Tobias Elliott was able to rocket down the wing and superbly touch down to make the score 25-12 with no conversion. In response, Sale answered back with their own score – a 5 pointer from Luke Cowan-Dickie from an unstoppable rolling maul. Alex Goode, subbed on for Roti Segun then rolled back the years at the other end of the pitch with a superb hand off and grubber through for Elliot Daly to score in the corner. Lozowski could not convert this but the score was 30-21 to sarries. A much healthier lead. Saracens then scored again to send the StoneX into raptures when Jamie George rumbled over from a rolling maul. The score was 35-21. Lowowski kicked his final penalty of the game to make the score 38-21, a dominant 17 point lead. At the other end of the field, a lovely move from the classy Sale 15 Joe Carpenter set up another sale try to make the score 38-26, the drop kick conversion was missed however as it was taken at 79:58, a restart could happen. Much to Sales annoyance, the ever-hungry and energetic Tobias Elliott pinched the ball back from the restart and some sustained pressure in the Sale 22 led to Sam Dugdale receiving his 2nd  yellow card and thus a red card and Saracens a penalty in the sale 22. From the kick to the corner and line out, Saracens played some good pick and go’s before eventually spreading the ball to Daly who dotted the ball down untouched.  Final score with the conversion was 45-26, a pretty resounding win.

There were a lot of positives to take from this match. The scrum was my main concern beforehand but it held up very nicely, only really being penalised once or twice and winning more free kicks and penalties than it conceded. The line out was another one of my concerns however the threat of Andrews was neutralised well by the sarries pack, mixing and matching the calls well. Fergus Burke had a super game at 10 again and made lots of ground and some searing runs through defences. I was also mightily impressed by the centres, with Alex Lozowski quite rightly receiving man of the match award. All in all, I don’t think there’s anything we can complain about and onto Exeter at StoneX next weekend!