A weekend to whet our appetites
SALE Sharks came out of the blocks at Franklin Gardens at the weekend with real determination and were camped in Northampton Saints 22 for most of the first quarter, with several unsuccessful visits into their Red Zone. However it was the hosts that crossed the whitewash first.
Sale gave a first outing to Aaron Reed, brother of ex Macclesfield player Charlie Reed.
Reed was very impressive in his defence and it had looked like a tryscoring tackle on the line but the ball was squeezed out for Tiemana Harrison to force his way over.
After that Saints built a healthy lead and whilst Sale did fight back with two tries from Jean-Luc du Preez and Lood de Jager, it was not enough finishing 17-14; with the Macc social media pundits thinking it was too much bish-bash-boks!
The Six Nations kicked off with one-way traffic in Rome, with Wales cruising to a 7-48 win and a shot at yet another Grand Slam in Paris on Super
Saturday next week.
Eventually Eddie Jones had made some changes with his stuttering Saracens against France, and the difference was obvious, with starts for Mallins and CowanDickie; added to which Billie Vunipola had got his A game almost back and Itoje played with much more control. It was a nip-and-tuck contest with some breathtaking rugby from both sides.
England squeezed it at the death but were the deserved winners 23-20 with their best performance since the World Cup semi-final against the All Blacks.
On Sunday we had another excellent game of rugby with the contrasting styles of Ireland’s control and Scotland’s flamboyant chance-it approach.
The game, besides having some excellent rugby in it, contained a few humorous moments; the first being what appeared to be Stuart Hogg ticking-off referee Romaine Poite after he had given Scotland a penalty in front of the posts, the second was Hogg’s legal nose knock-on for a Scottish try, and lastly Poite telling Jonny Sexton to speak to his players about their discipline under the posts: “Jonny, don’t be scared, Jonny don’t be scared I will tell you when time is back on.”
I wonder where we might be if it was not for that other French referee’s actions.
Scotland were in it to the end with some great play by Hamish Watson, who it has to be said, with his head band removed, looks like he’s just walked off the Braveheart set, he will have impressed the Lions Manager – and there’s another story, watch this space.