Manu Tuilagi was handed defeat on his Sale debut as Harlequins ripped up the script at Twickenham Stoop last night.
Watched by a masked Eddie Jones, England star Tuilagi made little impact as his new team fluffed their lines horribly in a 16-10 loss on rugby’s long-awaited return.
“We seem to be a good team on paper but not on the field at this moment in time,” rued Sharks boss Steve Diamond after his side gave up precious ground in the title race.
What had been billed as Tuilagi’s big night was instead one to remember for Chris Ashton, making his first appearance for Quins since quitting Sale before the lockdown.
The evening began on a shocking note with former Quins star Ugo Monye revealing, as part of Premiership Rugby’s campaign against racism, how he had been physically abused at nursery school because of his colour.
“My key worker, the lady who was looking after the nursery, she actually put out four cigarettes down my spine,” he told BT Sport.
“It’s not something I’ve spoken about before because it’s not very nice. But it’s important for people to try and understand. You’re two years old. It was directed at me for one sole reason and that was because of my skin colour.”
An emotional Monye said he shared his story “because I know I’m not alone in this” and ahead of kick-off every player on his former team took a knee as part of an orchestrated pre-match Black Lives Matter tribute.
Sale wore anti-racism tee-shirts but only four of their team chose to join Quins on one knee.
Tuilagi was not among them and for all the talk of what he was likely to inflict on a team Sale walloped 48-10 in January, it was Quins who handed out a lesson at the breakdown.
By half-time the Londoners led 9-0 with Marcus Smith’s boot punishing woeful indiscipline from a Sale side pinged 12 times.
Sale’s hapless half was summed up by Rob du Preez missing an easy pot at goal afterTuilagi had knocked-on over the line.
In normal times Quins would have had the Twickenham Stoop rocking. Instead their backroom staff got excited and nearly 15,000 empty seats remained unmoved.
They would have been glad of the lack of witnesses soon after half-time however as Sale at last came alive, albeit with a helping hand.
Quins shipped three quick penalties and from the resultant field position Sale pinged line-out ball across the field, Tuilagi sat down the defence and Byron McGuigan dotted down the try.
That might have been the turning point, instead du Preez handed Quins the game with a dreadful cross kick which led to a try for Scott Baldwin, a yellow card for Simon Hammersley and the hook for Sale’s misfiring fly-half.
"We didn't fire a shot,” admitted Diamond. “So I'm delighted to get a bonus point if I'm honest. We were shooting blanks really, we couldn't get a grip.”
QUINS - Try: Baldwin. Con: Smith. Pens: Smith 3.
SALE - Try: McGuigan. Con: R du Preez. Pen: MacGinty.
