The more they study it, the happier Sale will be with this. Regardless of close inspection, a bonus-point win against Leicester is not to be sniffed at, even if the Tigers are becoming more and more generous these days. This is the third time this season they have conceded 30 points – and we are only five games in.
Steve Diamond, Sale’s director of rugby, was quick to point to the factors they won the match in spite of, not least the referee’s interpretation of the scrum. “We haven’t lost a ball on our put-in for the last two years,” Diamond said, “and yet we gave five penalties away in a row on our put-in. It was a rookie performance from the kid referee.”
Leicester dominated the first scrum, earning three points for it, and thereafter Craig Maxwell-Keys’s mind seemed set. He also went straight to yellow when Sale infringed once at a driven lineout towards the end but showed the Tigers nothing when they infringed repeatedly at the start of the second half against a Sale lineout and drive they struggled with all match.
By the end, though, Leicester could barely move from A to B without coughing up a penalty. Their engine continues to stutter. When they are good, they are very good, as evidenced by the three excellent tries they scored themselves. But if they want to maintain their customary lofty position in this league a greater attention to the essentials, in particular defence at the ruck, will be required.
The rest of us, though, need not concern ourselves with such detail. This was a game to be enjoyed from start to finish, surging this way and that with a pleasing number of shifts in momentum. First Sale, with a try inside seven minutes, then Leicester with a pair of excellent tries around the 10-minute mark, then Sale again, scoring tries number four and five by the half-hour. Neither director of rugby will have particularly enjoyed it, such is the premium placed these days on defence, but for normal people it was richly entertaining.
All four wings enjoyed ball in hand. Of the new-ish England squad members, Ellis Genge made hay in the loose, while Josh Beaumont, Sale’s captain, shaped matters with authority in the heart of the action.
But it was a more familiar face to observers of international rugby who kicked things off. Mike Phillips waltzed clean through a Leicester ruck for his first try in a Sale shirt. Leicester had looked more than a little careless at that point, but their attack combined sweetly when Peter Betham claimed a brace in four minutes. Ed Slater, who left the field soon afterwards with yet another injury, stole a Sale lineout, and Betham exchanged passes with Brendon O’Connor for a fine score, all but equalled in its artistic merit by his next three minutes later. Genge made a big dent and O’Connor turned it inside for another scoring pass to Betham, this one requiring the Aussie to beat two defenders on his run to the posts. Leicester then extended their lead to 10 points with that first scrum penalty, whereupon it was Sale’s turn.
Will Addison landed a penalty, before Paolo Odogwu’s run from the blindside was picked out by Beaumont at the tail of a lineout for Sale’s second try. The home team retook the lead on the half-hour with a third by Johnny Leota, picking and going through another unguarded ruck.
A couple of penalties either side of half-time, the first for another offence at the scrum, brought Leicester to within one point. Which meant it must be Sale’s turn again. Those three uncarded penalties from driven lineouts set up the position, but it was after a scrum, ironically enough, that Halani Aulika, just on for Kieron Longbottom, drove over – through a ruck obviously – for Sale’s bonus-point try. They had quarter of a match to guard against any further swings.
No chance. Leicester came again. Aulika, who made quite an impression, fair and foul, was sent to the bin for collapsing Leicester’s maul just the once. Leicester could not drive the next attempt over but when they sent the ball wide Adam Thompstone finished brilliantly out of a two-man tackle. Owen Williams converted from the touchline to pull them back to within one with 10 minutes remaining.
Cue one last shift of momentum. Addison landed his second penalty with five minutes remaining, for a faultless display from the tee, and further driven line-outs from the Sharks ensured the momentum shifts would end there.
