With the Saracens at the top of the Premiership
table, you may have assumed that a home game at Allianz Park to 7th
place Sale would have been one game in which Sarries should have engineered a
bonus point try. But you’d be
wrong! It proved a hard fought contest
and Sale battled admirably and solidly.
Although Sarries won, the score didn't reflect the effort and
determination the Sharks put in.
On arriving at Allianz Park I was interested to see
how the Saracens warm up was organised.
The starting 15 played in defence just before heading back into the
tunnel. This was a great way to
psychologically prepare for the game, something I struggle with myself. Pre-match nerves are always a struggle but
once the impact of the first hit has been made, the adrenaline kicks in. Their preparation looked impeccable. Being able to sit in the East Stand and
compare the warm ups of both teams, I could see that the tempo of the Saracens
play was quicker and sharper. Would this
be reflected in the game?
We were only a couple of minutes into the first
half and Sale had already given away a penalty. Charlie Hodgson kicked the Saracens into a
3-0 lead. Sale didn't seem focussed
early on and with some bad passes and lack of commitment at the break down,
their execution of play was poor. The
Sharks looked fairly uncomfortable in parts but a Saracens slip up enabled
Danny Cipriani to score on the wing.
This soft try and conversion by Cipriani came only 12 minutes into the
game, giving Sale a 3-7 head-start. But
it was still crystal clear that Cipriani was in control of his kicking game.
When Saracens had the chance to close the gap 17 minutes
in, Hodgson missed the penalty from the half way line but luck was on his
side. Sale found themselves defending in
their own 22 with a kick backfiring and rebounding off Chris Wyles into touch. A Sale scrum 5m out was cleared but Sarries
were on the attack and Sale found themselves stuck over their own try line
trying to get the ball away!
After 32 minutes, a try was still yet to be
scored. Saracens looked strong in
defence but as Will Fraser committed to a tackle, it resulted in him incurring what
looked to be, an excruciatingly painful injury at the breakdown, an unpleasant
sight for anyone to see – a player in agony.
As a strong and passionate flanker who'd recently returned from injury,
it really was unfortunate to see him being taken off on a stretcher and
replaced by Kelly Brown.
Play continued and poor execution and a petty foul
by Sale for coming over the top of the ruck, saw Hodgson close the gap for
Sarries to take the score to 6-7, after 36 minutes. The home crowd, however, made it quite
apparent that they had their own opinion on foul play. The referee, JP Doyle, was not being well
received, due to a few poor decisions which saw Cipriani extend Sales’ lead further
to 6-10 with two minutes until half time and his drop goal on half time secured
Sale a surprising 6-13 lead going into the second half.
In the grand scheme of things, one would've
expected Saracens to have dominated from the outset. But Sale had wholeheartedly and determinedly
put up a strong fight and they were leading.
And rightly so! But the Sarries
half-time team talk seemed to pay dividends and only six minutes into the
second half Jack Wilson scored and with the conversion by Hodgson taking the
score to 11-13, Saracens were quickly back in the game. This hard work was thrown away however, when
Matt Stevens was penalised at the ruck and Cipriani kicked the penalty to widen
the lead 11-16, 49 minutes in. Ouch!!
Sale's phases of play were strengthening and as
they broke through the Londoners defence, the passing through the backs’ hands
should have seen a try awarded as Tom Arscott crossed the line. The TMO was consulted and no try was
given. Footage further back showed a
slight knock on even though JP Doyle let play continue. This begs the question, why was no advantage
given there and then? How far back do
you question the play? The replay was
highly frustrating to watch, especially in light of the hard graft Sale had put
in.
The minor errors Sale were incurring however,
allowed the boot of Hodgson to kick another penalty for the Saracens to close
the gap to 14-16. But when Sale were
further penalised for holding on, Hodgson failed to take Sarries into the lead
for the last quarter of the game. That
said, replacing Owen Farrell with Duncan Taylor saw the tempo change markedly
and the play was mainly in the Sale 22 for the last 20 minutes.
With
six minutes left on the clock and Saracens trying to break the Sale defence,
with the ball not being passed wide to the backs, the Londoners were really
limiting their options to score. The
term 'crash ball' is how I would describe it.
Passing to a forward, then taking the ball in and recycling it.
It was, unfortunately, slowing the play down and
becoming too predictable. Luckily for the Sarries however, the patience and
hard work did pay off, just. A try from
George Kruis saw Sarries over take Sale, 21-16 in the dying minutes of the
game. It was unfortunate that Sale's
mistakes saw Hodgson kick another penalty after 78 minutes but it was Nick
Macleod who had the last kick of the game for Sale, taking the final score to
24-19.
A messy and
unsatisfactory win for the Saracens, with a few lessons to be learnt. The warm up was better than the actual phases
of play in the game! Some elements of the game were too static and the dynamic
was low. It's a 'must' to inject pace
into play after so many slow balls.
Let's hope they can improve their precision and execution and aim for a
clinical, class act performance against the Tigers on the 21st
December - live on BT Sport!