Sale suffer another dose of late heartbreak

IT was a case of déjà vu for Sale Sharks, who lost 28-21 after a late try in France for the second time this season.

After a pulsating match, a youthful Sharks side looked set to earn a deserved draw with Toulouse on Saturday – only for Semi Kunatani’s 79th-minute try to snatch the win for the hosts.

It mirrored what happened when Sale lost out in the final few minutes in Lyon last October.

The hosts went ahead after five minutes when Van Dyk charged over on the left, Ntamack converting.

Toulouse scored their second try after 24 minutes through David Roumieu, with Ntamack again adding the conversion.

A long spell of forward pressure by Sale was ended by one of the tries of the season. The ball was lobbed out, almost Sevens style, to Josh Charnley on the right wing.

It was too high to collect, but he deftly flicked the ball back to Marland Yarde, who appeared inside him to collect and score. Despite the soft turf underfoot, Addison added the conversion to leave the interval score 14-7.

The second half was only a minute old when the Sharks drew level.

Haley, on his 100th appearance, made a trademark darting run, offloaded to Yarde for Luke James to touch down. Addison converted.

The hosts changed their entire front row after 48 minutes. Their forward pressure paid off after a third driving maul, with Marchant crossing the line. Ntamack converted.

The Sharks followed suit on 53 minutes, bringing on a fresh front row. Tolofua was then shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Sam James.

Two minutes later, numerical superiority was made to count when Josh Beaumont was on the end of a driving maul. Addison converted and the Sharks were level again.

It looked set for a draw but with 79 minutes on the clock, Kunatani scored, with Bezy converting.