Sale (H) 23rd October 2021 - 3pm

[aslongaswebeatsaints]

Just watching the highlights. Didn’t spot the offload from Weise at WR for the try as on other side of the ground but it was a thing of beauty.

Big shout out for Marco Van Staden. Nasty, powerful, skilful. On the edge. Some of those hits he made where brutal. A definite upgrade.

[Scott1]

Just finished watching the full match as was out earlier.. my thoughts:

Cracking defensive effort from the lads once again. Sale are a really well drilled, physical and powerful team and until the Dickson charity show in the last 10 minutes they couldn't find a way across the whitewash. Bit surprised they didn't tap and go from 5m out early on when they got that first penalty. Guess it shows that they weren't getting through the solid defensive line!

Dickson.. had a reasonable game.. 6/10 which by his standards is a fantastic performance. He missed a few forward passes and a really cheap shot in the first half where Manu came flying in to Nadolo who was lying on the floor.. nothing given, nothing from Kitty in the van who funny old thing remained silent but seemed identical to Kelly's citing and the one Manu got away with last week. What I did like from Dickson was he wasn't having any back chat and actually marched Sale back 10 twice in the same conversation for players giving him stick.. good to see although he gave their young 9 such an easy ride allowing him way more than 5s nearly every single ruck! Oh well, it's Dickson and to be honest he wasn't too bad today so no real complaints from me in this department aside from the cheap shot by Manu.

Sale half backs definitely impacted the game. With Faf and AJM I feel that would have ben a very different game. Sale must have turned down 4 or 5 shots at goal which with a kicker of Macginty's quality I wonder if they might have taken the points. Either way we definitely pressured their half backs into a fair few mistakes today.

Really like seeing Nadolo charging up the centre. Puts in a lot of work both out wide and coming inside looking for that crash ball. Very smart use of the big man.

Incredible offload by Wiese and what a finish by Liebenberg for our try. Reckon the injury looks like a dislocation. He didn't look comfortable when he went off but was moving it and wasn't in agony by any stretch.. hope he's ok and isn't out too long.

Ford was exceptional again today; the way he controlled the game, his delayed passes and near perfect off the tee. Steward was also outstanding and was perfect under the high ball. Must've taken something like 15 out of 15!

Some massive turnovers in there by the usual suspects but a really key one late on by Wells and my favourite was the one by Cole! He never gets rewarded but is always getting stuck in at the breakdown!

So the commentators said we haven't won our opening 6 games of a season since 1994! 27 years and here we are.. and those 6 matches included Sarries, Exeter and Sale and a few tricky away fixtures. Huge credit to the entire squad and SB for getting it spot on once again today.

Not the prettiest match but a gritty determined display that we dominated for large parts. Managed to play the officials out of the game and cancel out the threat posed by Sales massive centre partnership and even took apart their powerful scrum on a few occasions. Very well deserved win and to deny Sale a LBP at the death was a thing of beauty

What’s it on mate please?

Full replay of match is available on Premiership rugby site https://www.premiershiprugby.com/watch/ ... ks-round-6

Thanks

[Scott1]

Got to love Stonegenge
https://www.joe.co.uk/sport/ellis-genge ... rry-295837

[ay2oh]

In the words of a great anthem “we sent them home tae think again”.

[fentiger]

It's my opinion that Sale are as guilty as we were of relying on Manu as the one trick pony. I reckon Sanderson would have been all over it like a rash had he scored. So pleased we have much more to our armoury these days

[fortysix]

It would be very interesting to find out what England team SB would pick.....

[LE18]

In the words of a great anthem “we sent them home tae think again”.

The sentiment is there but I really question the word great?

[fentiger]

It would be very interesting to find out what England team SB would pick.....

It would be targeted particularly at the opposition, very much 'horses for courses' just like Tigers.

[mightymouse]

Also watched the video today and spotted the Jasper offload .. brilliant.. imagine the waxing lyrical there would have been if it had been a more fashionable player?

Matt Scott was awesome in defence.. absolutely shackled Manu.

The front row put in a massive shift .. only replaced in the last 5. And Sale where lucky not to be penalised for collapsing all the time.

Sale’s constant blocking was under penalised and Tom Curry was nauseating and was. Also under penalised. Also under current laws I don’t see how Van Rensburg didn’t get at least yellow for his tackle on George Martin!

Great win

[JGT57]

Not sure if I’ve missed this but I thought Harry Wells put a huge shift in yesterday

[chris111]

Just watched the highlights. Great try! There was a cross field kick where Nadolo tapped it on to a player that was absolutely clattered by Manu,looked high and wasn’t even looked at. We got a penalty at that breakdown due to not rolling away but still. Did anyone see if it was high? Looked poor first time!

My seat gave me a nigh on perfect view of that tackle and I thought it was fine. Just. A split second earlier or later, or a fraction higher, would probably have brought a red, but he got it just right as far as I could tell. I also thought officials did check it - ref seemed to be talking to TMO afterwards.

[sam16111986]

Just watched the highlights. Great try! There was a cross field kick where Nadolo tapped it on to a player that was absolutely clattered by Manu,looked high and wasn’t even looked at. We got a penalty at that breakdown due to not rolling away but still. Did anyone see if it was high? Looked poor first time!

My seat gave me a nigh on perfect view of that tackle and I thought it was fine. Just. A split second earlier or later, or a fraction higher, would probably have brought a red, but he got it just right as far as I could tell. I also thought officials did check it - ref seemed to be talking to TMO afterwards.

Yeah it was reviewed. Decision was Manu's arm hit the ball and then came up to a seatbelt tackle only so nothing to look at and stick with the breakdown penalty.

[Scott1]

Just watched the highlights. Great try! There was a cross field kick where Nadolo tapped it on to a player that was absolutely clattered by Manu,looked high and wasn’t even looked at. We got a penalty at that breakdown due to not rolling away but still. Did anyone see if it was high? Looked poor first time!

My seat gave me a nigh on perfect view of that tackle and I thought it was fine. Just. A split second earlier or later, or a fraction higher, would probably have brought a red, but he got it just right as far as I could tell. I also thought officials did check it - ref seemed to be talking to TMO afterwards.

Thanks,difficult to tell seeing it once but not problem then. Well done ref and TMO

[fentiger]

Just watched the highlights. Great try! There was a cross field kick where Nadolo tapped it on to a player that was absolutely clattered by Manu,looked high and wasn’t even looked at. We got a penalty at that breakdown due to not rolling away but still. Did anyone see if it was high? Looked poor first time!

My seat gave me a nigh on perfect view of that tackle and I thought it was fine. Just. A split second earlier or later, or a fraction higher, would probably have brought a red, but he got it just right as far as I could tell. I also thought officials did check it - ref seemed to be talking to TMO afterwards.

Thanks,difficult to tell seeing it once but not problem then. Well done ref and TMO

Careful…. That’s Messrs Dickson & Kitt you are referencing there

[OakhamTiger32]

My seat gave me a nigh on perfect view of that tackle and I thought it was fine. Just. A split second earlier or later, or a fraction higher, would probably have brought a red, but he got it just right as far as I could tell. I also thought officials did check it - ref seemed to be talking to TMO afterwards.

Thanks,difficult to tell seeing it once but not problem then. Well done ref and TMO

Careful…. That’s Messrs Dickson & Kitt you are referencing there

It’s alright they missed the cheap shot by Manu on Nadolo in the 12th minute and decided there was nothing in the high shot on Martin late on so we don’t have to praise them too much!