By pitprop
August 31 2005

So the away friendlies are done with, one more game at home before the season kicks off. Despite a sense of mounting excitement at the prospect of the "real thing" coming up, pitprop took thermos, woolly undies, notebook and pen to the game and came up with this:

The club with eight promotions in fifteen seasons came to Edgeley Park to provide our last friendly opposition prior to the start of the 2005/2006 Guinness Premiership. If National Division One newcomers Doncaster aspire to the top flight in English Rugby Union, (and they do) they took their first taste of it on Friday night, and found out just how much further they have to go.

PSA chose a strong fifteen to start the match and stuffed the bench with eleven replacements, including two Lions. It was interesting to observe the run-on team, as it probably contains quite a lot of PSA’s current thinking on his starting blend for the opening league game against Squeaky’s mob. Larrechea at fullback, Taylor and Elvis in the centres, the pack with a settled look about it, and importantly, a strong squad backing it up. Its worth checking the team out, and following the changes made as PSA tried out his permutations throughout the match:-

15. Larrechea
14. Cueto
13. Taylor
12. Seveali’i
11. Hanley
10. Courrent
9.   Wigglesworth
1.   Sheriden
2.   Bruno
3.   Stewart
4.   Lobbe
5.   Jones
6.   White (capt.)
7.   Lund
8.   Chabal

Bench 16. Titterrell, 17. Faure, 18. Coutts, 19. Anglesea, 20. Foden, 21. Hodgson, 22. Wakley, 23. Day, 24. Schofield, 25. Bonner-Evans, 26. Todd

Sale started very quickly, and from a scrum close to the Doncaster line, Chabal broke and angled through to score in the first minute. Courrent, playing at flyhalf, missed the conversion. Sale continued to press hard and Sheriden ploughed over in the 4th minute only to be hauled back by referee Sean Davey for crossing.

A minute later, Courrent broke on the right side, and stood up in a double tackle. The ball was worked quickly right to the unmarked Cueto, who unselfishly passed it on to Lund when challenged so that the conversion could be taken from a little closer to the posts. Closer or not, Courrent missed again.

On 8 minutes, Sale scored what was for me the try of the night. The pack took a scrum against the head just inside the Sale half. Courrent’s pop put Hanley away on the blind side, and the winger made good ground, handing off the defence before passing to Elvis who was following up strongly. Elvis stepped towards the posts wrong-footing the defence and went over unopposed. Courrent found his kicking boots, and the conversion went over.

Scoring slowed as Doncaster found their feet, their defence organised itself, and they managed to control most of their own ball. They found the Sale defence in an unforgiving mood, and the closer they got to Sale’s tryline the stronger the tackling seemed to get. It wasn’t until the 25th minute that Sale manufactured their next score. From a lineout on the left 5 metres out, Chabal took Bruno’s throw to the back. He dropped it into the grateful hands of Sheriden, peeling from the front, who barrelled through the lineout like a locomotive through a tunnel to score his try. Courrent, finding his groove, converted this one also.

Sale were showing much more cohesion than the previous week against Edinburgh, in particular their support play was notable. The defence was sometimes good enough to prevent the offload, but players were putting in a lot of effort to back up their colleagues. In the 34th minute Doncaster replaced their centre, and Lund went off, disappearing down the tunnel presumably for a blood injury. Schoey took his place, and the pack shuffled round, Jones sliding into the openside berth leaving a second row slot for Audenshaw’s finest.

In the last move of the first half Taylor scooped a pressured pass literally off his toes and broke down the right. His pass found the unmarked Frank who cantered round to score. Courrent again converted. Half-time score was Sale 31 Doncaster 0.

Lund reappeared after the break, among a host of Sale changes. Barry Stewart led them out, as captain Jason White had been substituted, with the new line-up as follows (numbers represent playing positions, not numbers on back);-

15. Cueto
14. Elvis
13. Todd
12. Taylor
11. Wakley
10. Hodgson
9.   Courrent
1.   Faure
2.   Titterrell
3.   Stewart
4.   Lobbe
5.   Schofield
6.   Jones
7.   Lund
8.   Chabal

Sale opened the second half at the same speed as the first. Within two minutes Elvis was cantering in from his new right wing position latching on to ball spread wide by Charlie. Hodgson wasn’t finished, as from his first place kick in anger of this season, he landed the conversion from about ten metres inside the right touchline. Sale took to scoring then at ten minute intervals, as with 51 minutes gone, Charlie made a wide half break through the centre. Todd came through on his inside to gather the pass and plough over, taking his tacklers with him. The flyhalf kicked his second conversion.

A couple of minutes later, Lobbe left the field to sustained applause and was replaced by Day. In the 61st minute, Charlie set events in chain again with a kick deep to the Doncaster 22. Drizzle had started at the break, and by this time the field was greasy. Doncaster’s Fijian wing Ligairi fielded the kick and as he shaped to cut upfield, his feet slipped from under him. He lost the ball, Todd toed it on, and Elvis scooped, side-stepped the final defender and scored his hat-trick try behind the posts. Charlie’s trusty boot did the necessary.

A minute later PSA rang the changes. Larrechea came on to replace Frank at fullback, Foden replaced Elvis on the wing (shortly thereafter Elvis replaced Taylor), Coutts replaced Stewart, Anglesea replaced Jones and NBE replaced Sea Bass. At some stage during the second half, Charlie assumed the captaincy, attending a lecture handed out to NBE.

The final score came in the 74th minute. Foden came flying down the right side, and his pass inside found Charlie in support. He converted his own try from wide out, and the final score was 59-0. Sale’s defence had kept out Doncaster, who, although they had several kickable penalties handed to them by the Sharks, chose to kick to the side-lines, or tap and go.

While some message-boarders have decried this game as a waste of time, the management will have taken a number of positives from it. In comparison with the Edinburgh game, mistakes have been reduced and execution was more precise. Granted the opposition was of a lesser standard than last week, but at least the gaping hole in the defence in the area of the inside backs has been firmly closed. Doncaster’s heavy pack led their effort, and several times were in a position to drive for the line. Each one was rebuffed by the defence, who also closed down their opponents in the open field.

Most individuals played well. Larrechea had a good game at fullback, the centre partnership showed signs of developing into an above-average unit, with Elvis displaying good footwork (those nearby compared it to the great Billy Whiz!). Hanley ran strongly but lacked the pace to outstrip the defence, while Cueto looked on form. Courrent, apart from his place-kicking misses, looked the part at flyhalf, but looked more comfortable at scrumhalf, and Wiggy, during his first-half appearance, showed again the class he possesses, and his uncanny knack of being in the right place when needed. Three times he rescued moves that were in danger of collapsing, and despite being detached from team-mates managed to re-cycle the ball.

The pack went well, imprinting their authority on willing opponents without ever playing to their very best. Of the replacements Charlie was clearly back to his best form, dictating the game, place-kicking and kicking out of hand impressive, handling and running skills of top quality. Wakley, Faure and NBE all showed good pace for their positions. As for leadership, it looked as though White, Stewart and Hodgson captained the team. Lobbe was his usual organising self in the pack, and it was pleasing to see Taylor being vociferous in organising the backs.

Downsides? If the team give away as many penalties as they did yesterday (and as they did in Edinburgh) they will not only find themselves on the end of some big scorelines in the GP, we’ll be topping the yellow card table. Penalties at the breakdown must be reduced – the defence is strong enough to absorb attacks with the re-cycled ball. Although defensive realignment must become more instinctive – once or twice forwards were seen defending in the centre without any backs present.

On the whole, progress has been made. We should remember that, for parts of the second half, only Charlie and Todd were playing in the backs from those in last season’s squad. Yet the team looked sharp, fit, enthusiastic and ambitious. And we still have Robbo, Epi, Ripol, Martens, Carter, Mayor and Turner to re-appear.

And our visitors? As the scoreline suggests, they’re a long way from GP standard. But their determination to climb the leagues will stand them in good stead in ND1. Their team seemed to have their main strength in the pack, but they’ll encounter other ND1 sides who also lay emphasis on their forwards. The injury to former Sale flyhalf Rob Liley late on, if serious, may well hamper their season.