By Sarah
April 24 2002

Sale comprehensively outplayed Saracens on a pleasant spring evening, scoring two tries and conceding none. The defence was improved since last week, though the game was riddled with mistakes from both sides which kept the try count low. This was reasonably action packed, yet strangely unsatisfying game that lasted longer than a football match thanks to Sarries' attention seeking injury antics. Sale dominated the play possession wise but failed to score a try throughout the first half. The defense was OK, better than last week against Bristol, but there were still loads of missed tackles and we were lucky not to concede a try early on when Tom Shanklin crossed the line but had his score disallowed due to a double movement. For the first quarter of an hour Sale held all the cards and looked like scoring on a few occasions, once when Mel Deane crashed through the middle and twice as Chris Jones raced down the right wing. There was at least a penalty for Sale in the 16th minute and again in the 27th so we had a measly six point lead to show for these efforts.

Sale squandered another sure fire try opportunity as Alex Sanderson dropped a pass from Jason Robinson who had come around the defence on the right wing. But minutes later Saracens had made the most of their possession by chipping the ball over the Sale defensive line towards their try line. Steve Hanley chased the ball but didn't get a clean catch - luckily the confusion did not result in a Sarries try.

Early on in extra time Jason Robinson sent Adam Black over the line but the ref said the ball had been held up. Charlie Hodgson kicked a penalty in the 7th minute of injury time, after which we were surprised to see the game kick off again. In fact injury time went on for a total of 14 minutes, during which time Charlie missed another penalty. Sale went in 9-0 ahead at the break.

A stroke of good fortune got Sale off to a flying start in the second half. Saracens were putting us under considerable pressure when Mark Cueto intercepted a pass from Nick Walshe metres from our line and sprinted the whole length of the pitch to score a much needed try under the posts. Much celebration ensued and Charlie converted the try.

Sale spent lots of time in the Sarries half but repeatedly made wasteful mistakes. Sarries were constantly infringing but did get three points from a penalty around 15 minutes into the half. Eventually, after several moments attacking the try line, Sale's persistence paid off with five points for replacement Pete Anglesea. He nipped round the side of a scrum for a very popular score.

Towards the end of normal time there was a promising scoring chance for Jason Robinson after he managed to beat almost all of the defence, but a lack of support meant that the movement was over once he got tackled by full-back Adryan Winnan. There was to be no bonus point for Sale on this occasion so on Friday night we were equal on points with London Irish.

It was great that Sale only gave away three points but I felt we were fortunate not to have conceded at least one try. However speaking after the game, Jim Mallinder was happy with how the defence had gone:

"Particularly pleasing was our defence, after leaking so many tries against Bristol last week. A major emphasis we put on in training and in the game today was to improve our defence and I was delighted that we kept a clean sheet."

Chris Jones was Man of the Match against Bristol and was very good again today. He is one of the discoveries of this season and Jim had plenty of praise:

"He's got loads of potential, I think one thing that he has got above a lot of other players is natural pace. As well as being a tall, skinny lad, he's actually a hard lad and he showed that with a couple of tackles where he drove the opposition back. We're delighted with his progress."

On the recruitment front, there were some promising words from the coach about the progress being made in attracting players to Sale at the moment:

"It's an added attraction of a side, if you're playing in Europe. If you're playing in the Heinken Cup then it's not only the players who you have here are interested and want to play in it, but I think people outside the club are interested. For once we're in a fairly strong position in terms of recruitment."

Sale team: Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto (Alan Dickens, 64), Martin Shaw, Mel Deane (Dan Harris, 53), Steve Hanley, Charlie Hodgson, Bryan Redpath (capt), Kevin Yates, Andy Titterrell (Charl Marais, 42), Adam Black (Barry Stewart, 53), Iain Fullarton, Mark Giacheri (Pete Anglesea, 49), Chris Jones, Alex Sanderson, Stuart Pinkerton.

Saracens team: Adryan Winnan, Ben Johnston, Kevin Sorrell, Tim Horan (Tom Shanklin, 12), Darragh O'Mahony; Luke Smith (Ben Hampson, 40), Nick Walshe, Robbie Russell (Pierre Durant, 57), Matt Cairns, David Flatman, Abdel Benazzi (capt), Scott Murray (Kieran Roche, 43), Kris Chesney, Richard Hill (Ben Russell, 47), Tony Roques.

Attendance: 3,947

Referee: Chris White