Report: Sale Sharks 21:17 Harlequins

Tonight reminded me of the 2 word review of Spinal Tap's album "Shark Sandwich."

After a promising 60 minutes, Quins seemed to completely loose shape in last quarter. Giving away countless penalties and 2 yellow cards in the second half that threw away an 11 point half time lead.

Even Mike Brewer said afterwards "In all honesty I don't know how Harlequins lost that."

The normally positive Conor O'Shea clearly took things a little more personally, "I'm absolutely furious and we'll take a long, long hard look at ourselves next week." And I hope they make it a good one as the last 20 minutes of the second half was truly relegation level stuff. Bereft of poise, composure, skill or confidence it was almost like watching the Quins away team who went 40 points down to Glos last season.

As for the match, things start well for Quins. Sale catch the kick off, charge down field but are turned over, giving possession to Quins and a promising attack by Brown and Guest is stopped by the nights first forward pass. The Sale put in at the scrum turns into a free kick for Sale which ends in a knock on for them.

Quins scrum then wins them a penalty! Don't know how we manage that but we do, only for the resulting attack to end in a forward pass. Sale win a free kick at the. scrum which Easter catches and finally Quins put together some good foot work and passing that eventually sends George Lowe over for the nights first try. Nev duly converts and Quins are a promising 7 points up after 6 minutes.

Ollie Smith catches the restart and takes the action into Sales half. Only good defence by Sale prevents another try and Fearns and Seymour manage to turn the ball over which MacLeod kicks to touch just inside Sales half. The resulting Quins line out is not straight and possession in needlessly given away. This was the first of a number of poor Quins line outs (there were two calls of not straight in the first half alone) and I suspect we won't be starting another game without two proper second rows.

Quins are then penalised in the scrum twice - the first free kick is knocked on by Sale, resulting a Quins scrum and the second free kick is poorly handled by Sale and turned over by Easter. 2 minutes later and after a line out that Quins actually win, Easter is penalised at the breakdown and Sale have a very kickable penalty, which MacLeod misses. He makes no mistakes 8 minutes later and Sale finally get on the scoreboard - 3 - 7 to Quins.

Seconds later Quins are penalised again following a barnstorming run by Sales 15, Paul Williams. The big man catches the restart deep into his half and storms up to the halfway line before being felled. Quins are penalised again and MacLeod kicks the ball from inside Sales half to claim another 3 points. 6 - 7 to Quins and 22 minutes gone.

In the next 5 minutes the action switches back and forth with Cueto and Williams looking dangerous for Sale. A promising attack from Sale is only stopped by some superb defence from Tom Williams and as Quins win the ball on the floor things appear to be going our way. We then win a penalty at the scrum and capitalise on it by winning the line out and getting a very kickable penalty which leaves the scores at 6 - 10.

Approaching the final ten minutes of the first half and Tom Williams is replaced by Comancho. Williams looks like he was injured stopping Sale a few minutes earlier.

After the restart, which is well taken by Brown, Quins concede another penalty at the line out and the resulting Sale attack is only stopped by a forward pass. Quins scrum is solid this time and moments later Quins are penalised again and find themselves defending a Sale line out on their own 5 metre line. Some superb Quins defence keeps Sale from crossing the tryline and the ball is neatly turned over by Easter who passes to Dickson who makes light work of the Sale defence and gets just over the halfway line before being stopped. Its now Sales turn to get penalised at the breakdown and yet again the Quins line out is not thrown straight. Sale win their line out and kick down field, straight to Mike Brown who legs it back up field, getting through the Sale defence and passing to JTH, who hacks the ball ahead and scores the 2nd try of the evening. Nev converts and after a few more minutes of play the first half ends 6 - 17 to Quins.

All in all a pretty good first half. The penalty count is still too high and the line out isn't good, but the scrums are about 50/50 which is certainly an improvement and Quins are defending and attacking well.

Sale make three changes at half time with Sheridan, Briggs and Cliff coming on for Forster, Jones and Leck (who was having a good game at scrumhalf for Sale). It doesn't make much difference as Sale still seem to lack any precision and their attacks keep breaking down. The first turning point is the sin binning of Ollie Smith 8 minutes into the second half which clearly gives the Sharks that first sniff of blood. With a new Quins front row joining just before the yellow card, the push to try and close the game down falters and Quins are left defending for much of the next ten minutes. Moments after Smith returns to the field, Vallejos is correctly yellow carded for Quins persistent offending and Sale's efforts are rewarded by an excellent try from Cueto (well assisted by Cohen). The conversion is missed, leaving the scores 11 - 17.

With only ten minutes remaining all Quins have to do is hold on to the ball. With Browne now on for Guest, the lineout is looking better and Quins are going through the motions, keeping hold of the ball and defending well. A penalty against Marler in the scrum leads to Sale lineout, which Quins win and then get turned over! The resulting attack and some fancy footwork from MacLeod lead to a try for Sale, this time its Tonetti (with pretty much his first touch of the ball) that scores and this time there is no mistake at the conversion and now Sale are ahead for the first time 18 - 17.

Despite plenty of effort, the only points in the final 2 minutes are a penalty for Sale and the game ends 21 - 17.

On reflection this really was a shambolic last quarter for Quins and there is a lot to work on for next week. Exeter may not have any name players but they have a solid scrum and lineout, something Quins are sorely missing. Our penalty count is shocking too and we were lucky with just 2 yellow cards.

Sale may not be quiet gelling yet, but their back line certainly possess plenty of talent and MacLeod is certainly a very able substitute for Charlie. Williams looks very promising at full back and works well with Cueto and Cohen. Gaskell seems an inspired choice of Captain too and led in the lineout and on the field.

In a final summing up of the game, CoS said our "attitude and intensity were not good enough." That may be a slight understatement but he hit the nail right on the head.