Alex Sanderson, Sale Sharks’ director of rugby, said this week that Manu Tuilagi was “simmering” after being dropped from the England squad by Steve Borthwick. Evidently, the player’s internal temperature was closer to boiling point as he unfurled a UFC-style elbow into Tommy Freeman’s jaw while carrying the ball into contact. His team ran out of steam without him, coughing up a 20-point lead to lose at Northampton.
“He’s gutted,” Sanderson said. “He’s fessing up to the boys in the circle; apologising and saying he owes us. He fully owns what happened out there and that’s the kind of man he is. I know he will pay us back.
“All of that is tough to take when you’re still reeling from a game that we could and probably should have won.”
With Ollie Lawrence starring for England against Italy in the No 12 jersey, Tuilagi needed a statement performance. He was involved in Sale’s opening try when he passed to Robert du Preez who chipped into space on the left wing. Arron Reed simply had to gather the bouncing ball to score.
Then Tuilagi saw red but he was not the only Sale player to receive marching orders. Cobus Wiese and Ewan Ashman were handed yellow cards. The extra bodies counted as Northampton roared back to move up to third in the league.
They were in trouble when Tom Curry – described as “brilliant” by Sanderson – scored after charging through Northampton’s guts off a pop pass from Gus Warr. Then Jean-Luc du Preez dummied into space to dot down under the posts.
The hosts responded when Freeman escaped three tacklers and fed Tom James on a superb supporting line, but that was as good as it got as Sale’s forwards dominated the arm wrestle.
With eight tries coming into the match, Sale’s maul is the most productive in the land. Jean-Luc du Preez thought he had added to that, but was denied by an obstruction call. Ashman, though, capped off a rumbling drive before the break.
Robert du Preez made it 27-7 with a penalty after the restart and that should have been that. But momentum shifted when Wiese was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle. With a two-man advantage Northampton went to the maul and unleashed Freeman on the angle to score.
Sale needed calm heads and introduced George Ford to make his Premiership debut for the club 14 games into the season. He was welcomed by a clattering tackle from Fraser Dingwall which left him momentarily breathless.
Northampton kept the pace up. A 50-22 off James’s box kick gave them a lineout within striking distance. The overlap down the line was exploited and Matt Proctor finished to close the gap to eight points.
Replacement Sam Dugdale was on the back of another mauled try for Sale but a penalty try for Northampton from a maul of their own restored the eight-point deficit and ended with a yellow card for Ashman.
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Again down to 13 men, Sale were exhausted. Holes began to open across the pitch and green jerseys rushed through them. Callum Braley scored on 74 minutes to bring Saints to within a point. They took the lead for the first time with four minutes to play when Dingwall slid over from the umpteenth overlap on the right.
It was yet another addition to the growing list of great Premiership comeback wins. But this was a contest that was turned by a brace of yellow cards and a single red, rightly dished out to a player who will now have plenty of time to simmer on the sidelines.
