The curse of the Madejski returned to haunt Sale on Sunday, doing serious damage to their chances of an immediate return to Europe’s top tier. They remain in seventh place but the gap to Wasps, currently the side in pole position for the final Champions Cup place, has stretched to five points.
The problem for Sale, who last won in Reading in their championship season, 2006, is that they have only themselves to blame. The game could have been wrapped up by half-time but instead of going to the interval three points up they handed London Irish their first try of the game and ultimately that was the difference in a match strewn with adventure and errors in equal measure.
Steve Diamond, the director of rugby at Sale and a man who previously had been dampening expectations of a possible top four place, spent most of his afternoon pacing the touchline until Danny Cipriani committed his final sin of the game, attempting to run out from under his posts, only to be stripped of the ball.
However, Diamond saw his own culprit, notably the referee Greg Macdonald, in charge of only his third Premiership game. He said he had complained during the week that the game needed an experienced referee. “I needed to know why we’d got an inexperienced referee and as always we were told that we had to give him a chance,” said Diamond.
“There were six Premiership referees in the Championship yesterday and we get a lad in his second game – a crucial game. I don’t see why clubs like Sale and London Irish should have to put up with that kind of officiating.”
Diamond said it was right “that these lads get experience, but I don’t want to be the side which is continually giving these lads experience.”
Macdonald’s difficulties started within a minute when the London Irish fly-half Chris Noakes tried to run the ball out from under his posts and lost control. The Scottish international flanker Blair Cowan fumbled before Cipriani was taken out over the line. Diamond saw it as a penalty try, Macdonald consulted the TMO and
somehow it all resulted in a Sale throw, but Diamond’s side had some compensation when a trio of Cipriani-inspired incursions ended with the wing Tom Arscott going over in the corner.
Not until the end of the first quarter did Irish begin to get any foothold, their pack making significant inroads in the scrum and winning the penalties which got Irish noses in front for the first time.
It did not last long. A wayward pass from Noakes saw the pendulum swing again and Sale gain the field position from which their second try eventually came. First Tom Court became the first of three Irish players to go to the sin-bin and from then on the Exiles were up against it.
A series of scrums and lineouts applied the pressure before the ball went right to left, exposing the lack of numbers as the full-back Mike Haley got over with an overlap outside. And that looked to be it for the half with Noakes going for the most optimistic of penalties.
From 55 metres his kick went horribly wrong but Cipriani, instead of hoofing the ball off the park, chose to run. Haley, the hero two minutes earlier, fumbled and his opposite number, Andrew Fenby, was presented with the ball 20 metres out. Noakes converted and somehow the side on the back foot for most of the half went to the interval 13-10 up. Moreover the second half was about to start in an equally madcap manner.
First a try for Sale, Arscott’s second, had more than a hint of forward pass about it, although the referee chose not to consult his TMO and then Macdonald turned down the Irish pack which looked to have crossed the Sale line at a canter.
Instead Sale’s scrum-half, Chris Cusiter, became the fourth to go to the sin-bin before two tries in five minutes from the Irish wing, Alex Lewington, put the game and possibly Europe beyond Sale. “It looks like its going to be a bigger job than we thought,” Diamond said.
London Irish Fenby; Ojo (Fowlie, 68), Griffin, Mulchrone, Lewington; Noakes, Allinson (Oleary, 54); Court, Paice (Stevens, 75), Palframan (Aulika, 47), Skivington (capt), Rouse (Narraway, 11), Sinclair, Cowan, Guest.
Tries Fenby, Lewington 2 Cons Noakes 2 Pens Noakes 2.
Sale Haley; T Arscott, Leota, Tuitupou, Cueto; Cipriani, Cusiter (Cliff, 70); Harrison (Lewis-Roberts, 52), Taylor (Jones, 58), Cobilas, Ostrikov, Hines (Mills, 58), Braid (capt), Seymour (Lund, 63), Beaumont.
Tries Arscott 2, Haley Con Cipriani Pens Cipriani 2.
Referee G Macdonald Attendance 5,575.
