I think I’ve finally thawed out enough to do the write up now. Actually, in defence of the Kingston Park weather, it was colder watching the developmental side beforehand than it was the first team later on, although that might be because I had retreated to my usual spot in the back of the South Stand. Perched in the East Stand was right in the teeth of the wind and I’d forgotten just how exposed it gets over there. Not as exposed as Sale probably felt come full time though as they became the first side this year to fall victim to the Red Bulls in the league.
The conditions definitely played a part, dampening the usual pre-match pyrotechnics and even playing havoc with the jet-packer that Red Bull had put on to deliver the match ball. I did feel a bit sorry for the poor lad as one of is jet engines failed to fire in front of a full house Kingston Park, leading to his unceremonial trugdging off the field on foot.
That kind of set the tone for the first half which, as expected given the very notable presence of Storm Austen, was not awash with points and running rugby. Which isn’t to say we didn’t try as we stuck to our now established approach of trying to throw the ball around no matter what the game state or conditions. This meant a slew of drops, most of which came in good spots, as we enjoyed some good early pressure and made quite a few trips to the Sale twenty-two. I’m no coach, but seeing us continue to try and zip 20-yard passes in those conditions was pretty frustrating and I do wish someone with some experience had knocked a few heads together in that first half and just implored the lads to keep it tight.
Keeping it tight was very much the Sale plan as they kicked plenty and mostly stuck to the forward pods when in possession. With any ball that rose above the West Stand moving around violently George Ford hoisted up a lot of high bombs that caused chaos in the backfield although thankfully the Red Bulls back three managed to put out most of the fires with Brett Connon, Josh Hodge and Simón Benítez Cruz kicking well from hand given the conditions and opposition.
After 20 minutes of arm wrestling and errors, Sale did eventually work a penalty in the middle of the field which brought out one of my favourite things to see on a rugby pitch, one of the forwards being employed to hold the ball on the tee. Ford duly slotted home to take the lead, and with our handling errors continuing, Sale slowly began to take control of the contest; spending much of the last ten minutes of the half camped out in our territory. The Red Bulls were equal to it though, and for the first time this year we put on an impressive sustained defensive effort. The conditions definitely helped, we have looked much more solid this year defending in tight and with the rain and wind battering KP, Sale were pretty reluctant to spread it wide.
Take nothing away from the lads though, those defensive sets on the stroke of halftime probably swung the game in the end as we repeatedly held firm, even managing to get underneath two strong surges from Sale to keep them held up over the line.
Halftime saw the return of the jet-packer who this time managed to fire and did a few quick exciting laps of the ground before perching on the crossbar in front of the South Stand. Exciting? Yes. Gimmicky? Also yes. What’s that Garth Marenghi line?
It was Red Bulls who started the second half brighter. Immediately not just holding, but knocking back, a Sale attack and managing to flip the field to get us right down into Sale territory. And this time the attacking move managed to hold together long enough to crack the nut as a flowing move sprung Christian Wade for a simple finish in the corner to take him level with Christ Ashton.
Given how damp things were yesterday, I do wonder if he was actually secretly slightly happy to save going ahead for a nicer day?
After that, we were in the ascendancy. The defence suddenly had the teeth it has been missing so far this year as Sale didn’t get any time to settle on the ball, reversing almost 30 yards on successive carries and again seeing the filed flipped on them, leading to penalty in front of the posts which was slotted by Hodge who was excellent off the tee all night.
Ten points already looked a tall order for Sale when a mis-thrown lineout from the visitors was snaffled by Tom Christie and then hacked down the field for Hodge and Werner Kok to pounce and win a penalty right in the corner. The five meter lineout finally found some success and the rolling maul delivered George McGuigan for the game sealing try. We weren’t great up front again for most of this one, that’s the first rolling maul I’ve seen this year from us and the scrum creaked in a big way until Francisco Moreno came in to anchor it home with a big scrum penalty in the dying minutes. In the end though Sale failed to capitalise and to be honest, looked a bit rudderless for most of the second half as we smothered most of what they had to offer. In fact the biggest real opposition cam in the chape of one of the corner flags doing it’s best to sabotage Josh Hodge as he attempted to keep a kick for touch in play.
POM: Chris Harris – This one was won without the ball, and he was at his best last night holding all of the pieces together and relentlessly eating up space and time for Sale.
Still ninth in the table after all that then, although the win is a good step towards the mid table melee and away from Quins in tenth (who play Sunday). Up next, back to back trips to North London in league and then Prem Cup (remember that) action to face Saracens.
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