If nothing else, Sale showed certain other clubs across the water (eastwards) how to behave after two defeats from two in this competition. Saracens, far better off in squad terms – as are Montpellier who capitulated at home to Bath on Friday night – had to work furiously for this one. No question of the demotivated rolling over.
Some might even say Saracens were fortunate to come away with the win. That would do a disservice to their defence, but certainly it would have been no injustice had Sale made it the extra few inches across their line to win at the death.
Not that this was a classic by any means. The contest at set piece was absorbing, but the anticipated duel between the England fly-halfs recent and hopeful, Owen Farrell and Danny Cipriani, was a disappointment and much else besides.
Indeed, it was the man who came before them as England No10 who sparkled briefly and proved the difference. Charlie Hodgson showed just why he was elevated to that lofty position, just why he remains the finest fly-half the Premiership has ever known.
Sale, with whom he and his Saracens half-back partner, Richard Wigglesworth, once won the title, had just taken the lead with an uncompromising lineout drive when Hodgson swooped, jinking and accelerating round three defenders like a 24-year-old, not the 34-year-old he is. He broke from inside his own half to metres short of Sale’s tryline, before slipping the ball inside to Farrell in support, whose momentum took him to the line. Farrell was playing inside-centre here, with Brad Barritt likely to be ruled out until the new year with a calf injury picked up in the England game last week.
It was a brilliant try, all the more exceptional for its uniqueness in a game of muscle and fumble. In addition to the penalty Hodgson had slotted from an early scrum (he was handed the kicking duties ahead of Farrell). It was a try to earn Saracens the lead.
Alas, Hodgson was forced off with a stinger five minutes before the break, and with him went hope of further enlightenment. Cipriani followed him shedwards in the second half with a knock to the right knee, which is thought to be minor, leaving the stage to Farrell, who supplemented his early try with a penalty and drop goal, both testing and superbly struck, both crucial in establishing the cushion Saracens later relied on.
A strangulated game it may have been, but it was not without excellence. Magnus Lund, another stalwart of that Premiership-winning Sale side of 2006, scored that early Sale try and was magnificent throughout, over the ball, in the front line and in support. He was on the shoulder of Sam Tuitupou, another punchy performer, in the buildup to Sale’s second try, a patient exposition of continuity scored by the galloping Andrei Ostrikov. Saracens were by then six points ahead, courtesy of a driven try of their own early in the second half, but Nick Macleod could not land the conversion, so Sale remained a point behind entering the final quarter, then four behind after Farrell’s drop goal with quarter of an hour remaining.
It meant Sale had to keep going for the try during the final minutes, during which Saracens endured that relentless pounding. “It’s a matter of composure,” said Steve Diamond, Sale’s director of rugby. “Forget that the referee warned them about six times at the end and didn’t show a yellow card. We didn’t get it, and we should have moved the ball. We had wingers outside and would have scored.”
But how refreshing that they were in there until the death, despite little chance of qualification. There’s a lesson for some to learn there.
Sale Haley; McLean (Addison 72), Jennings, Tuitupou, Cueto; Cipriani (MacLeod 57), Cusiter (Cliff ht); Lewis-Roberts (Harrison 58), Jones (Mamukashvili 69), Cobilas, Mills (Fihaki 60), Ostrikov, Easter, Lund (capt), Beaumont Tries Lund, Ostrikov Con Cipriani Pen Cipriani
Saracens Goode; Ashton, Taylor, Farrell, Strettle; Hodgson (Bosch 34), Wigglesworth (De Kock 57; Wigglesworth 76); M Vunipola (Barrington 68), George, Du Plessis (Johnston 57), Kruis, Hargreaves (capt; Hamilton 64), Brown, Burger (Wray 68), B Vunipola Tries Farrell, B Vunipola Pens Hodgson, Farrell Drop goal Farrell
Referee Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Att 7,053
Game rating 5/10
