Sale Sharks 22 Saracens 20
The wild celebrations at the final whistle told their own story. Nothing will quite make up for the pain of losing to Saracens in last season’s Premiership final, but this gutsy victory provided a small but significant measure of redemption for Sale Sharks.
The only slight dampener in the victory which continued Sale’s lead in the Gallagher Premiership was the departure of England center Manu Tuilagi with a groin injury early in the second half. “He sensed it and called physiotherapy, so I can imagine if he called physiotherapy it would be relatively serious,” said Rugby Sales Director Alex Sanderson. “Normally you have to drag it. “This is a little worrying.”
It is also a worrying situation for England head coach Steve Borthwick, who has played less than six weeks in the Six Nations, especially given Tuilagi’s long, checkered history with groin injuries.
While the rematch of the 2023 final was announced as another George Ford versus Owen Farrell clash, the most influential figure emerged as Sale forwards coach Dorian West. It was ‘Nobby’s’ sausage-like fingers that ensured Sale’s complete command of the scrum and maul and provided the platform for all three of their tries.
Saracens are rarely subjected to such comprehensive bullying in such areas and the introduction of the hard-headed Asher Okopu-Fordjour in the second half turned the tables further as Mark McCall’s side conceded seven penalties in attack.
Ben Curry was also outstanding out wide and striker Tom Roebuck showed off his international credentials with a powerful finish. It was a game of high winds and hard hitting, with the remnants of Storm Pia still in the air. Some of Ford and Farrell’s bombs began to deflect backwards in conditions that hindered ambition or accuracy.
The sale should have put Saracens away sooner. Hookers Agustin Creevy and Luke Cowan-Dickie scored from strikes that could easily have gone into the stands, while Roebuck also scored a delicious first base try.
After a scrum, Sam Bedlow pulled the ball back to Ford, who took Roebuck in stride. The strength of his run enabled three Saracen defenders to cross the try line, with both Scotland and England talking about potential links to the winger in recent weeks.
But Sale were often their own worst enemies. Ford attempted a tackle on Saracens scrum-half Ivan Van Zyl in the first half and missed the goal kick in admittedly appalling circumstances. Other opportunities begged but they conceded three attacking penalties in the final five minutes to get over the line against the winners from Twickenham.
“This win is so much sweeter, of course it is,” Sanderson said. “The set piece was pretty outstanding and that’s where we squeezed them in terms of penalties. We seem to have found a form there with the arrival of Asher. “It was another good performance from Asher against another British and Irish Lion.”
That Saracens managed to stay in the competition was largely thanks to the efforts of Maro Itoje, who lost his hair following a midweek visit to the barbers, but not thanks to his power to shape the competition to his will. At times he appeared to be taking the fight to Sale on his own, allowing Gareth Simpson to burst through the middle of the game to give half of the reserve scrum an easy score to close the gap to two points with 15 minutes remaining.
In terms of their set-piece dominance, Saracens’ walk away from a rainy and windy AJ Bell Stadium losing the bonus point is far from the worst result in the world.
“It was brilliant,” Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said. “I thought he had been like that for a while and that he was really re-energised and enjoying his rugby. I think it was documented that he had a health problem before and people were wondering what was wrong with Maro. But once that cleared up it was the same old Maro. Better. Overall I was happy with the lack of feeling sorry for ourselves and we just moved on to the next thing and made it a game.
Match details
Sales: J Carpenter; T Roebuck, R Du Preez, M Tuilagi (S Bedlow, 43), A Reed; G Ford, G Warr; R Harrison, A Creevy (L Cowan-Dickie, 41), N Schonert (A Opoku-Fordjour, 49), C Wiese, J Hill (J Beaumont, 58), E Van Rhyn, B Curry, JL Du Preez
Saracens: A Beauty; L Cinti, N Tompkins, O Hartley, S Maitland (L Mulipola, 51-60); O Farrell, I van Zyl (G Simpson, 60); M Vunipola (T West, 53), J George (T Dan, 53), A Clarey (L Mulipola, 76), M Itoje, T McFarland (T Knight, 76), J Martin Gonzalez, A Christie, B Vunipola (H ) Tizard, 53)
Scoring order: 0-3, Farrell pencil; 5-3, Creevy tries; 7-3, Ford; Try 7-8, Van Zyl; 7-10, Farrell con; 12-10, Roebuck trial; 17-10, Cowan-Dickie try; 19-10, Ford con; 19-13, by Farrell; 22-13, Ford item; 22-18, Simpson try; 22-20, Farrell con;