By pitprop
November 5 2005

Did you ever have one of those days where, no matter how hard you try, you just can't come up with that pithy opening paragraph of between 130 and 300 characters? Where the whooshing sound of the muse departing drowns out even the planes coming in at Ringway? Pitprop has no such problems...

The headline on the back page of Friday evening’s South Wales Argus read “Stop Chabal!”. The subsidiary strapline enlightened us - “Powerhouse Frenchman is biggest threat to Dragons”. Your reporter was reliably informed that Sea Bass was seen reading this article prior to the game! The Dragons must have read it too – Sea Bass had a quiet game by his thunderous standards and left the field in the 70th minute carrying an arm injury after a late tackle. What no-one told the Gwent boys was that the Sale team can threaten throughout the side, and concentrating defence on Chabal was likely to leave holes which the backs could exploit.

Rodney Parade held its biggest crowd of the season so far (7237 – some 4000 short of capacity). The weather was warm, dry with a northerly breeze. PSA made one change from the announced line-up, with Jason White coming in at No 6, Jonesy moving up to the second row and Lobbe shuffled on to the bench. The Dragons too had a change in the second row where a rib injury to Ian Gough brought Peter Sidoli into the side. The early exchanges brought a penalty on the halfway line for the Gwent forwards not rolling away. Daniel Larrechea stepped up to take the long-range pot at goal only for the support staff to discover that his kicking tee was still in the changing room. Larry inevitably missed, and, amid the jeers of the crowd, Sale fans hoped that it was not an omen.

The game settled down quickly and revealed the respective game plans. Charlie kicked long, looking for territory from which to attack. Dragons scorned the kick unless necessary, and kept the ball in hand running at every opportunity. Sale pressured the Gwent pack whenever they clashed, the lighter Welsh eight holding up well in the initial phases. On 23 minutes that pressure paid off as Charlie’s up and under dropped just outside the Dragons’ 22. Morgan was caught and held by Taylor and as the Dragons scrambled to retrieve a retreating ball, Sweeney shaped to kick. He was charged down by Jason and Hodgson, the flyhalf following up to dot down the kindly bouncing ball before it crossed the dead ball line. From near the left touchline, amid hostile and ill-mannered booing and jeering, the England No 10 calmly slotted the conversion in-off the right hand post.

The Sale defence stood up well to the Dragons riposte, and it took them 10 minutes to force Sale to concede a penalty for offside, and then from 40 metres. Warlow, however, is a good place kicker, and booted the ball over. Sale pressure told again 2 minutes later as the Dragons front row were penalised for standing up in the scrum. Charlie kicked to the left corner, and from the subsequent drive from the lineout, Forster was warned for not rolling away. In an action replay from the Munster game, Sale’s forward were turned 180° at the 5 metre scrum. They were then penalised for charging at the reset. Scot Andrew Hall took a quick tap, and knocked on! Sale restored order at the scrum, Charlie took the ball up, it was recycled to Jason, who floated a long pass for Mark Cueto to stroll in. Charlie converted amongst the whistles, and the score line climbed to 3-14.

Again it took the Dragons some time before they could reply. On 36 minutes, following a period of side to side play that made little ground for the Gwent men Sheri was penalised for holding on to the tackled man (actually two of them!) in front of the Sale posts, and Warlow kicked his second three-pointer from 30 metres. Following the restart, Lund caught Owen with the ball. From the ensuing lineout Lund peeled back into the Dragons’ red zone. When recycled, Charlie’s miss pass did indeed miss most of the backs, but bounced kindly into Larrechea’s grateful hands. He cantered through non-existent defence to score the third try, but limped away from the try line. Charlie duly converted in a near-unnerving quiet. Sale had silenced the crowd. There was just time for Sidoli to be carded for coming in from the side following a Lund turnover. Charlie missed the penalty and M. Berdos, the referee, blew for halftime with the score 6-21.

Sale were understandably sprightly of step as they made their way to the changing room to listen to PSA’s thoughts. Dragons meanwhile looked stunned, like rabbits caught in the headlights. As though they had been warned about the Sale danger men all week, but couldn’t quite believe the reality.

After the interval, the Dragons seem to step up their pace in an attempt to match the Sale physicality. On 43 minutes, Hall, the blindside competing for Big Tam’s Scotland shirt, took it a stage too far. From the traditional offside position of his countrymen, he crashed into Sea Bass in an early tackle, injured his arm in the process and proving that the big Frenchman is in fact mortal. At this point Larry retired, limping, from the fray, Ripol came to the wing and Billy Whiz dropped back.

During the following lineout, the maniacal Hall struck again. He burrowed under the leaping Jonesy, took out the supporting Chabal and emerged blinking under the floodlights only to focus on the referee’s lofted yellow card. Now was the time to put this game to bed. Six minutes of artificial sunshine for Sale’s haymakers to complete their task against 13 men. Unfortunately the hay had only the effect of sending Sharks to sleep. From a Dragons scrum under the posts, the big men prepared an attack. The quick-thinking Dragons had other ideas. Locking out the scrum they struck quickly and acting No 8 Tuipolutu flicked the ball right. Catching the defence off guard for the one and only time the ball found Wyatt in space. Crossing the halfway line he spotted Jason the fullback en route to intercept, and put some air under the ball. It bounced and cleared the Sale captain, whose foot slipped away as he turned. His ineffectual hit spun the winger over, and he rolled in for his try. The crowd were back in the game with a vengeance, but any fanciful thoughts of a Castres-style comeback were extinguished when Warlow missed the kick.

The try was the signal to start the replacements coming on, Adam Black replacing Maddocks on the loosehead and Richard Fussell for Breeze on the wing for Gwent. The chastened Sidoli returned to the action three minutes later, Hall too following shortly after. Andy Titterell replaced Bruno and Nacho took over from Schoey. The Sale efforts looked a little disjointed as the new men settled into place. Charlie it was who took command, as he resumed kicking the corners, allowing the pack to regain their poise, the team to refocus on the game plan.

In the 61st minute, the threatening Elvis made a 40m break down the middle. The Dragons handled the ball on the ground, and Charlie kicked a 15 metre penalty to start the scoreboard ticking in Sale’s favour again. Still the bench men made their way to the centre, Jamie Ringer (son of the notorious Paul) came on for Forster, and Valentin Courrent’s nuggety presence replaced Martens’ aggression. The weight of Sale’s scrummaging began to tell as Sheri forced Rhys Thomas to lower the scrum. The procession meanwhile continued with NBE on for Sea Bass and Coutts for Turner, while the Dragons brought on Bryan for the beanpole Charteris.

The pressure was building on Gwent as Charlie orchestrated the game. On 75 minutes he broke up the middle, the ever-present Lund took the ball on, and the rolling maul commenced. It gathered pace and more forwards piled in. The recently arrived Argentinian Lobbe ploughed the ball over, despite several of the papers claiming it for Maggie. Nacho, naturally, was delighted. And Charlie, naturally, converted. Game effectively over, bonus point in the kitbag, we could go home now.

But no, we had time for one more round of replacements, last man Todd for the home-coming Taylor, one Gareth for another (Baber for Cooper) and former Ponty centre John Bryant for the wayward kicking Sweeney. And we had time to watch try hound Elvis get in on the act. In injury time, from a scrum on the left, Courrent sniped. When the ball reached Elvis he swayed inside, planted a massive handoff on Warlow, who was lifted off his feet, and arced outward to cross unopposed just right of the posts. Man-of-the-match Hodgson’s conversion signalled a perfect five for him, taking his tally up to 18 points including his try. The ref’s whistle brought an end to proceedings with the score 38-11 in Sale’s favour.

Paul Turner was magnanimous in defeat, his most striking remark being his response when asked how Sale’s pack compared to that of Castres. “Favourably”, he said. However, PSA and KJ will no doubt focus on the post-interval nap that allowed the Dragons an (admittedly very well-worked) try when they were down to thirteen men, and Sale’s failure to score in that period. There are bigger tests to come when we will have to be much more ruthless.

The game lacked the ferocious intensity that characterised Sale’s last two home encounters, and produced more mistakes as a result. Nevertheless it was a good win at a ground where it is notoriously difficult to poach a win (Bath (pre-season) and Leicester (AWPGC) have lost there this term). Not only that an away try bonus point will be invaluable in the group. The Dragons are out of it now, and their resistance (or lack of it) against the other sides in the group may well determine which side progresses to the quarters.

The South Wales Argus weighed in with “Blitzed – Sale Sharks teach Turner’s men a lesson” the following morning. Turner is reported as saying “the Heineken Cup is not our most important competition, the Celtic League is our bread and butter” – the words of a DoR whose team doesn’t have to qualify for the HC, and for whom there is always next season in the same league whatever the performance. At breakfast, our generous hostess presented us with a full English breakfast. The bacon was crisp and the sausages well-done – as were the Dragons!