By The Saracens
October 26 2022

It’s that time again when the call goes out – anyone got a pair of rugby boots? The Autumn Internationals hit most teams hard because not only do the home nations play but so does almost every other rugby playing nation from Samoa and Japan to USA and New Zealand denuding most Premiership Clubs of their best players. In football, the Premiership will pause during the unseasonal World Cup Finals but rugby expects its clubs to carry on with the bare bones. It’s hard to understand how we can market this fabulous sport of ours. 

Club Rugby, for those of us who love it, is something special. Anyone who watched last weekend’s game against Exeter on TV might think they’d like to pop along to StoneX to see a live game for themselves. Wouldn’t it be great to see Billy, Maro, Mako, Tizard, Malins the flesh. Wouldn’t it just! Premiership Clubs have taken the shilling, sanctioned an additional week’s International and we the fans are denied out feast. Ok this week it should be just the England guys who are missing but next week we really will be struggling when we lose Tompkins, Pifileti, Theo, de Haas, Mawi, Bello, Wainwright  & Christie. Add to our injury list: well we’d be missing Jamie and Faz anyway but there’s also Woolfie, Davies, Maitland, Morris, Taylor, Segun, Harris, Crean, Isiekwe, Adams-Hale and possibly Riccioni. Oh for the days when Yoda felt Sarries’ influence was detrimental to the England team ! That soon changed didn’t it.

Either way, what a shame that this top of the table clash is reduced to an A team match. With clubs already having 2 rest weeks plus the sad demise of Wasps and Wuss liberating another 4 free weeks,  you would think the powers that be could arrange things differently. Actually you wouldn’t because that would be sensible! I would love to think something could be put in place for the 6 Nations to help clubs like Sarries who tend to supply more than their fair share of International Players. I’m not holding my breath!

Sale will also be impacted by England call-ups. Raffi Quirke, Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry, Jonny Hill, Bevan Rodd and now Tom Roebuck have been summoned by Yoda. Sale have a long term injury to new signing George Ford. Akker van der Merwe is also out.

Saracens and Sale are the front runners so far this season. Sarries are 6 from 6 having only dropped 1 point, Sale were 5 from 5 but came unstuck against Quins (at home) on Sunday. They will want to put things right on Sunday against the league leaders.  From the match report against Quins, it sounds like they have similar problems to us: discipline and the breakdown. The choice of referee could be interesting!

So who’s in and who’s out? As far as the backs are concerned, I’d go with: Daly, Loz, Tompkins, Lewington and another fit winger. Hopefully Maitland or Harris might have recovered otherwise it looks like a debut for Tom Howe. Goodey and Van Zyl at half back. Then the forwards: do we have a fit loosehead? Not sure if Mawi is ready if not looks like Flynn or our new signing Robin Hislop could be pitched straight in. Pifileti & Judge (or Riccioni if he’s fit) complete the front row. Locks: I think Hunter Hill and maybe Theo with Christie, Earl and Wray in the back row. As for the bench? Well as I said bring your boots! Let’s hope that Sarries, who are notoriously tight-lipped about injuries, can produce a couple of dramatic recoveries out of that magic hat. Abracadabra anyone?

Sarries did the double over Sale last season. We will all welcome Alex Sanderson back to StoneX (not sure what’s happened to his hair though). This will be a big ask from some young guys but they’ve shown us before that they can rise to the occasion. They’re gonna need a lot of yeast!

SALE PREVIEW: PLEASE POST ALL MATCH RELATED COMMENTS HERE

Discussion started by TheSaracens.com , 26/10/2022 17:20

TheSaracens.com
26/10/2022 17:20

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:11:06:22:05:28 by Darraghgirl.

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Superman wears Schalk Brits pyjamas
27/10/2022 07:35

We can see the sense in McCall’s 100mph start to the season, 29 points would still be a good return from 9 games (we had 33 last season) so we can afford a few blips in the next three games before the cavalry return for the Heineken Cup

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AP
27/10/2022 09:20

Another (sad) plus is that our tally does not include points from Wasps matches which some other sides still have. Gloucs and Saints will drop out of the top four when those are removed.

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Innings
27/10/2022 10:13

I expect a sterner test than we have faced thus far at home, and than Sale have faced away from home. The table means little right now; PRL website still offers the tasty match-up of Wasps v Falcons this weekend, so we must hope that no travelling support will be disappointed when they get to Newcastle.

Innings

Points win matches: tries win hearts and minds.

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Darraghgirl
27/10/2022 20:19

A wise appointment with the Whistle - Wayne Barnes assisted by Anthony Woodthorpe and Jonathan Healy + Brian McNeice on the TV

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MGB
28/10/2022 12:09

Saracens Men team to play Sale Sharks:

1 Eroni Mawi

2 Kapeli Pifeleti

3 Christian Judge

4 Callum Hunter-Hill

5 Theo McFarland

6 Andy Christie

7 Ben Earl (c)

8 Jackson Wray

9 Ivan van Zyl

10 Manu Vunipola

11 Elliot Daly

12 Nick Tompkins

13 Alex Lozowski

14 Alex Lewington

15 Alex Goode

Replacements:

16 Theo Dan

17 James Flynn

18 Marco Riccioni

19 Andrew Kitchener

20 Toby Knight

21 Ruben de Haas

22 Josh Hallett

23 Sean Maitland


Sale Team





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:10:28:12:40:09 by MGB.

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1876-Fez
28/10/2022 12:40

Sale Sharks Starting XV:

15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck, 13. Sam James, 12. Sam Hill, 11. Tom O’Flaherty, 10. Robert du Preez, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Simon McIntyre, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Nick Schonert, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. JL du Preez, 7. Ben Curry ©, 8. Daniel du Preez

Replacements:

16. Ewan Ashman, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. James Harper, 19. Jono Ross, 20. Sam Dugdale, 21. Joe Simpson, 22. Tom Curtis, 23. Byron McGuigan.

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nicsue
28/10/2022 14:55

Captain Ben - I like the sound of that. Only then to realise that Sale like it too!
Congratulations Ben Earl

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myleftboot
28/10/2022 17:33

Awesome, Mad McGuigan on the bench for a comedy interlude in the second half. Bet Nick Tompkins is sharpening his wit in readiness

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flavman 35
28/10/2022 22:14

Strong side that we are putting out, very happy

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Static
30/10/2022 17:15

Huge performance that. I was fearful before that game that we would get outmuscled. Many great individual performances that make it difficult to call out players but;
Goode obviously.
McFarland will turn into possibly the most dynamic player I have seen. He must be a beast to play against.
Theo Dan, excellent performance. Have been nervous of hooker, but he really impressed, and I think we are building a solid group there now.
Van Zyl is getting better and better
Earl and Wray too.

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ComeOnSarries
30/10/2022 18:16

Thoroughly enjoyable game of rugby. After 16 minutes when we were 15 -5 down and Ben in the bin I thought it was going to be a long afternoon. But the boys really competed up front and we had more cutting edge in the backs and in the end deservedly won. Lots of good performances but Alex G had a stormer and I thought both our centres also played excellently.
Very proud of the boys given how many of the gun team were missing.

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myleftboot
30/10/2022 18:38

Really impressed with Alex Lewingtons defensive effort today. Poor Alex Sanderson will be very happy to see Wee Georgie fit, they were really lacking leadership in attack

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The Bard
30/10/2022 19:37

Sales attacking play in the second half was awful. And just as well as they could have won comfortably.
Fantastic effort from the lads to soak up the early battering and come out on top.

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Darraghgirl
30/10/2022 19:48

Wow that was quite something! What a performance. How good would we be if we could keep 15 players on the pitch. Yoda was sitting just behind us: I think Goodey, Earl & Daly all proved some rather large points! Wonder if Eddie's regretting not picking Tompkins when he could?

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The Bard
30/10/2022 21:05

It was getting like Quins in the semi with one yellow card after another following a comeback from a dismal start

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OTsarrie
31/10/2022 00:16

Agree with all the above , but also thought Callum Hunter-Hill had a great game doing a lot of the grunt work that can go unnoticed . Also good in the line-out .
2nd row now a position of strength …

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JimG
31/10/2022 07:46

That was another exciting watch. We are really going to miss Theo though on international duty - exceptional again both in the lineout, collecting the kick off and in the loose. Thought Christie had a decent game too - some dynamic carries.

All yellows correct but Earl's was the only bit of intentional foul play. Daly's just a bit of a minor accident and it is quite hard to see what Tompkins could have done differently. The fact they only scored one try during all of the time we were down is credit to our defence but also indicates some severe limitations on the part of Sale - it was like their forwards didn't trust their backs at all. The one and only time they went wide, they walked it over the line.

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Roger G
31/10/2022 08:05

Re the yellows - Ben's - deliberate foul play, Elliot's - dangerous carelessness (he wasn't looking at who else might be going for the ball), Nick's - technically correct but very harsh, he's more or less stationary and the ball carrier runs head first towards him. The only thing Nick could've done in the time he had was to step aside.

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siNBin
31/10/2022 08:50

Quote:

Roger G
, Nick's - technically correct but very harsh, he's more or less stationary and the ball carrier runs head first towards him. The only thing Nick could've done in the time he had was to step aside.

Interesting point, the unscrupulous could run at a stationary player hoping for a minor clash of heads which would be counter-productive. Does the attacker have no duty of care to the defender if he/she is stationary?

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ComeOnSarries
31/10/2022 09:36

Quote:

Roger G
Re the yellows - Ben's - deliberate foul play, Elliot's - dangerous carelessness (he wasn't looking at who else might be going for the ball), Nick's - technically correct but very harsh, he's more or less stationary and the ball carrier runs head first towards him. The only thing Nick could've done in the time he had was to step aside.

That’s exactly what I thought. Wasn’t sure that he had any time or ability to avoid head to head but if anything thought the attacker was reckless not the defender

Didn’t realise until I looked at highlights last night just what Nick did to stop Sale scoring a try near the end. He is a very valuable player to the way Sarries play.

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JimG
31/10/2022 09:51

That's the second game in a row where we've conceded a penalty try and yellow card from a line out maul near our line. I don't blame the players as it must be difficult to just basically let the attacking team score in those situations but it is an area I am sure we must be looking at as the equation is 5 points plus 50/50 chance of the extra 2 v straight 7 points and a man down for 10 minutes and the odds on getting away with anything even slightly nefarious are slim.

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The Bard
31/10/2022 10:08

Sale are certainly going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Stick Quirke, Ford and Tuilagi into that back line and they will a hard team to beat.

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JimG
31/10/2022 10:21

Quote:

The Bard
Sale are certainly going to be there or thereabouts at the end of the season. Stick Quirke, Ford and Tuilagi into that back line and they will a hard team to beat.

I'm not so sure. Those players will certainly improve their attack but their defence, particularly in midfield, was v poor. Every time we got some decent possession (which wasn't often) we looked like we might score. A side like a full strength Gloucester, who will match them up front, could make mincemeat of them. Unfortunately for Gloucester that game is next week and they will be without Harris, LRZ, Carerras, Hastings etc so a bit harder to call.

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Static
31/10/2022 13:58

One point on the Lineout mauls in the game. We gave away a try early, but we also stopped a lot of lineout drives that Sale tried, What was most impressive was what was almost a pincer movement in the defensive drive that stopped forward momentum as normally the advantage comes from driving around the side of the defenders who are driving forward. It is not just forward momentum that was stopped but also sideways. That stood out to me as one of the biggest factors in the game. At one drive near the end Riccione held one side almost by himself and stopped Sale going around him.

That dense improved massively through the game.

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derbyshire fan
31/10/2022 14:34

Static - spot on; I had the same thoughts watching the game at StoneX, and then had them re-inforced by watching the game back on tv as soon as we got back home.

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Happy Sarrie
31/10/2022 18:26

I thought Wayne Barnes's tackle count was a bit excessive

On a serious note this was a scriptwriters dream for Mr 339 backed up by great performances across the group. Like may others I was getting prepped for a dismal day but once again the boys refused to bend, fantastic stuff.

Looking forward to the trip to Bristol to see my daughter and grandchildren, I mean the match.

My wife has told me that she's considering ending our marriage due to my utter obsession with rugby.

I'm begging her for one more try!

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