By pitprop
October 25 2005

The red hordes came, they drank and sang, and they went home disappointed. Sale started their cup campaign with a good, hard win, but now they must travel to the depths of Wales to meet up with an old friend and hs team. Pitprop lights up a daffodil and sharpens his leek to bring us this preview.

The long-awaited Heineken Cup has started. The travelling support will be dreaming of the balmy nights in the south of France, even the warmth of Italy. This season they’ve done Watford in the sunshine to see our reserves put in their place, and suffered Squeaky’s sour remarks at Soulless. A mighty performance against Munster in the first round. Now for a touch of the exotic! Pardon? Newport on a wet October Friday night – you must be joking!

But no – the second round in Group 1 takes us off to Rodney Parade to take on the Dragons, while Castres travel to the gales of the west coast of Ireland – Thomond Park to be precise. Our Gwent opponents have not fared so well this season – their sugar daddy has legged it almost causing another franchise collapse. Money has been tight, and the squad is lean because of it. The Dragons had to take some club players to Castres because of injuries within the squad, notably prop Adam Black (knee) and Welsh centre Hal Luscombe (thumb). With a squad of just 34, Paul Turner (Dragons’ DoR and one time player-coach at Sale) will be relieved to hear that first choice loose head Black is targetting his former club’s visit for his return to the fray.

Dragons lie 10th in the Celtic League, having won only one game, and lost four. The vagaries of the fixture list have seen them play only one League game at Rodney Parade, when they were narrowly beaten by Ulster. The manifestation of the cup competitions seems to have awakened them from their slumbers, although perhaps only temporarily in the Anglo-Welsh Powergen. On the first weekend, Dragons beat Leicester at Rodney parade by 24-15, and were held up as part of the triumphal “Wide Welsh – Power English” controversy. Unfortunately Gwent followed the stereotypical route of the Welsh regions in the second round, and crashed and burned at Franklins Gardens the following week, beaten 32-7. Which left Llanelli to fly the Welsh flag with the Dragons almost certainly eliminated.

A narrow loss at Edinburgh followed for the Gwent team, but the Heineken Cup seems to have startled the Dragons into breathing some fire, as they came back from Castres with a bonus point from a 24-29 loss. They seem to be finding some form at last, and settling down under Paul Turner’s stewardship. And while away wins have been difficult to come by, they are a different proposition at Rodney Parade, as Leicester found to their cost.

The Sky highlights showed a competent although not full strength Castres racking up the early points and easing up after their bonus point try to let in two Gareth Wyatt tries as Warlow spun it wide. The Dragons pack were lightweight in comparison to Castres’ heavies, and it was the French side who had the upper hand in the forwards. While Dragons were able to meet the first shunt of the Castrais rolling maul, the second effort overwhelmed them and the hooker scored. Turner seems to have accepted that his pack are not going to win a slugfest, and has concentrated on techniques to protect sufficient ball for the Dragons to use their backs.

Nevertheless there are some very competent operators up front. Ian Gough competed strongly on opposition ball, Rhys Thomas battled well at tighthead against the former All Black Carl Hoeft, and carried to great effect, and Jason Forster is a nuisance at openside. Michael Owen, although not the greatest presence on the gain line, is a consummate footballer, and is often the pivot around which Gwent link their attacks. Our new Scotland captain will meet a former Glasgow colleague at blindside, former lock Andrew Hall. And Black will return to the front row although Rhys Thomas and hooker Steve Thomas brought home knocks from the Stade Pierre-Antoine.

In France the Dragons chose to spin the ball wide at every opportunity, keeping it away from the Castres buffaloes whenever possible. With Gareth Cooper, Ceri Sweeney and Kevin Morgan, Gwent have a spine of quality players in their backs, with the fullback Morgan an especially dangerous runner. Warlow, a lightweight flyhalf, has many of the skills of a traditional Welsh flyhalf, and is beginning to show more subtle touches in his play, presumably encouraged by Turner (as our longer-term supporters will remember). However Warlow will have to deal with M’sieu le Monstre coming down his channel, as will the cerebral Owen.

Kingsley Jones has already intimated that Sale will play it through the forwards – “its going to be won and lost up front”. Sale will need to pressurise the Dragons’ pack to slow down ball delivery to their backs – because their backs can hurt teams. Our defence will have to be both flexible and rock solid when necessary. Its vital to stop the Gwent attack and quiet the home crowd. Expect to see the big Sale ball carriers – Sea Bass, Sherri and Big Tam – taking the ball into the flyhalf/inside centre channel, recycling and doing it again. It won’t be pretty, but as Wasps and Munster found out, it can be very effective.

And most of all, we must not underestimate the team that most pundits see as the weakest in our group. As Stade Francais (2nd favourites), Biarritz (4th favourites) and Wasps (6th favourites) discovered, unfancied teams such as Ospreys, London Sale and Edinburgh can still pull out winning performances, particularly if they sense any weakness or lack of focus in the visitors. We are now 6th favourites, and the magic Dragons will be “frolicking in the autumn mists” if they can overcome the GP leaders. The result will probably depend, for Sale, on whether they can maintain a high level of concentration after two very intense, high quality games. This previewer believes they can – Sale by 5 points in another bruising encounter.