Sale got back to winning ways with a patchy performance against a disjointed La Villa side; too many handling mistakes and silly errors were prominent throughout the game for both teams. To be fair to La Villa, the Sharks did not get out of their own half until nearly ten minutes into the game. La villa started strongly and winger Marcos Poggi looked dangerous out wide as he chipped a ball through which was knocked on by the young Sale full-back Will Addison. It would be fair to say that Sale slightly underestimated the Spanish champions as they tried to play from deep early on; a tactic that would have cost them an unexpected try had James Knight not knocked the ball on in his attempt to intercept Rob Miller’s pass.
Sale looked dangerous in their early forages into La Villa’s territory; following a successful line-out, the Sharks’ forwards drove a maul slowly towards the try-line, however, Nick McCashin, the La Villa fly-half was yellow carded for being caught in an offside position when Sale were about to score. Sale boldly opted for a scrum from the penalty and they were rewarded with a penalty try from referee Alan Falzone after they destroyed the Spanish scrum. La Villa did well to hold Sale off the score sheet for 17 minutes, but it was an inevitable outcome. Miller added the simple conversion. Sale 7 La Villa 0
The Sharks looked to be in for another easy score, but once again they were halted by cynical play when La Villa collapsed a powerful driving maul. From the penalty the forwards backed themselves once again and Captain Andy Powell barged his way through two defenders to score Sale’s second try. Miller was unsuccessful with the conversion. Sale 12 La Villa 0
Even with several handling errors from many Sale players, the Sharks managed to find some attacking form; Miller made an outstanding 40 metre break through the Spanish defence, but the ball was knocked on by his supporting team-mates just metres from the try-line. Addison made amends for some of his errors with a promising break of his own, but once again the ball was lost in contact, this time by Andrew Higgins. A few phases later after winning their own set-piece, Higgins showed his devastating finishing power, he swatted aside three defenders and eased his way under the posts. The conversion was a formality for miller as Sale increased their lead Sale 19 La Villa 0
La Villa were awarded with penalties for putting several phases together and trying to push deeper into Sale’s half. McCashin could not make his first attempt count as he skewed it to the left of the posts, but he managed to land a huge kick from inside his own half to get La Villa on to the scoreboard. Sale 19 La Villa 3
The Spanish visitors made their intentions to chip away at the lead known by their decision to kick at goal from another penalty. McCashin added another penalty from just about where his first attempt was on the pitch. Sale 19 La Villa 6
The ball was kicked out of play by the visitors and the half-time whistle blew. Half time: Sale 19 La Villa 6 Sale looked as if they were trying to play rugby in the wrong areas of the field and they made mistakes that would have been punished by better teams. La Villa would have been proud of their first half-performance; they defended fairly well and kept some possession away from the home side. Fitness and discipline would prove the key to avoiding embarrassment in the second-half.
Ten minutes in to the second-half Sale secured the bonus-point try after some subtle interplay between Johnny Leota and Luther Burrell. Leota’s try could have been prevented, but poor defending let the Spanish side down. Miller was on target again with the conversion. Sale 26-6
Simple handling in the back-line and a clever dummy by Burrell sent the winger through to score under the posts and Miller was given another simple conversion. Sale 33 La Villa 6
Sale improved as the game went on and they showed a well worked move from a line-out; Powell and debutant Cillan Willis linked up in midfield with a delicately performed switch and Miller threw a wide flat pass out to Higgins. Sale went right up to the try-line, but the ball was slapped out of Willis’ hands by La Villa’s scrum-half Hernan Quirelli. The scrum-half was given a yellow-card as he became the second member of the back-line to be sin-binned. From a resulting penalty at the scrum Willis made the most of half a gap and scored on his debut for the Sharks with a clever opportunist try under the posts. The conversion once again was slotted by Miller. Sale 40 La Villa 6
After 65 minutes La Villa’s players looked out on their feet and Powell made the most of this with a rampaging run down the left-wing. Higgins looked to be in for his second try, but he was just held up short of the line. Open-side flanker Richie Vernon burrowed his way over the line in the corner to score for the home side. Miller showed he could kick more demanding conversions with a fantastic touch-line effort. Sale 47 La Villa 6
The game started to loosen up and even the Captain Powell was allowed to have a punt downfield. Slick interplay between Burrell and Leota put the outside centre into space. Leota sold Edu Sorribes Ramirez the La Villa full-back an outrageous dummy as he went in for his second try of the evening. Miller was having a great day with the boot and he added another conversion from a difficult angle. Sale 54 La villa 6
Addison once again showed why he is one to look out for in the future as he showed excellent footwork and speed to ease his way around several defenders. He chipped the ball through and Leota demonstrated accurate footballing skills to control and collect the bouncing ball to seal his hat-trick. Miller missed the conversion in an otherwise great kicking display. Full time: Sale 59 La Villa 6
Man of the match: Johnny Leota (Sale) the outside-centre was the most consistent performer on the pitch for Sale and he finished his tries well. He was assured in defence and set up his colleagues for well-worked tries.
After the match I spoke to Sale’s forwards coach Steve Scott:
On improvements needed for the return to the Aviva Premiership:
‘We need to improve our basic skills; we showed tonight we can score good tries, but we need to build up more phases of possession.’
‘We will need to be much better next week against Exeter, the Aviva Premiership is a very tough competition and the players will improve next week because it is a very important game for us.’
On the younger members of the squad looking for more first-team action:
‘Age means nothing if the players are good enough. You need a big squad and it is good that we can give young players an opportunity in the Amlin and LV Cups. If they perform consistently well, then rightly so they should come into selection.’
On Sale’s ambition in the Aviva Premiership this season:
‘We want to be back in the Heineken Cup and to do that you need to finish in the top-six. A top-four finish would be outstanding. Our target at the moment is to be in the top-six and to be back in the Heineken Cup next season.’
Have you got any thoughts or comments? Do you think Sale could be contenders in this season’s Amlin Challenge Cup? Can the Sharks make the top-six in the Aviva Premiership? Message/follow me on twitter @tommyd91 or post a comment below. Please follow Crouchtouchengage if you would be interested in receiving regular updates from the Aviva Premiership, the Heineken Cup and International Rugby.
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