Deacon happy with Sharks’ fightback
SALE Sharks coach Paul Deacon was pleased with his side’s performance after they overcame a 10-point deficit to claim a 29-22 Anglo-Welsh Cup victory against Saracens at the AJ Bell Stadium.
The Londoners were much the better team in the first half, going 16-6 up via Will Skelton’s try and three Max Malins penalties.
However, Ben Curry’s effort just before the break began to turn the tide in Sale’s favour and they controlled the second period.
Malins did add two more from the tee after the break for Sarries but scores from Alexandru Tarus and Mike Haley helped the Sharks to another cup victory.
Deacon said: “We found a way to play last week and we had to change that a little this week and I thought the lads did that really well when you consider the conditions and the opposition we were up against.”
Sale once again named an inexperienced side, with 17-year-old Cameron Redpath lining up at inside centre, and Deacon praised the youngster after he was forced to play for 10 minutes at fly-half following AJ MacGinty’s yellow card.
“It was a big task for him,” he added. “He had to go in at 10 and I thought he really showed how good he could be.
“He’s definitely one player to look out for in the future.
“The young kids didn’t look out of place.
“All credit to them and the academy coaches that have brought them through.”
The Sharks’ victory meant that Sarries suffered yet another agonising defeat after going down to Harlequins 30-29 last weekend, and coach Adam Powell was frustrated by their self-inflicted errors. “I’m disappointed,” Powell said. “In the first half we did a lot of good things, although we could have kicked the corners a little bit more and played a bit more field position.
“The messages at half-time were to do that, but we started the second half with three penalties against us, which gave the momentum to Sale.
“We probably lost it a little bit in the line-out, which meant we couldn’t quite capitalise on field position... and we just let the game slip away from us a little bit.”