Sharks move off bottom spot with scrappy victory
SALE Sharks boss Steve Diamond believes the psychological boost his side will get after climbing off the bottom of the Premiership Rugby table can’t be underestimated following a scrappy win over fellow strugglers Newcastle Falcons.
Saturday’s 20-7 victory at the AJ Bell moved Sale above Falcons and with no Premiership game until November 17, it means Sharks can head into a five-week spell of European Rugby Challenge Cup and Premiership Rugby Cup action with a pep in their step.
Having trailed 7-3 at half-time, Sale took advantage of two Newcastle yellow cards after the break to crash over for three tries through James Phillips, Bryn Evans and Rohan Janse van Rensburg – leaving Diamond content.
“I’m delighted with the four points,” said Diamond. “Newcastle are a top-four side, though ourselves and them are not in as much form as we would have hoped.
“It’s good to get off the bottom of the league. To go into the European break now off the bottom is psychologically good for us.
“I’m not suggesting we’ll stay off the bottom if we play like we’ve played in one or two games this season already though!
“But now we can rest the Jono Rosses and Bryn Evanses of the world for a week or two and we come back afterwards with our internationals hopefully back with us.”
An attritional first half hour ended with AJ MacGinty slotting a penalty before the Falcons steadily gained yards in the Sale 22 until Welch was able to go over the line from a few metres out, with fly-half Joel Hodgson converting for a 7-3 half-time lead.
But when Marland Yarde was tripped by Logovi’i Mulipola after offloading the ball, the Falcons prop was sin-binned and Sharks utilised their heavy-hitting forwards to set Phillips up for a pick-and-go from close range that got him across the whitewash. Newcastle scrum-half Michael Young was then yellow carded for unsafely tackling Byron McGuigan, just as Mulipola was about to return to the fray and Yarde’s quickthinking pass sent Evans over in the corner.
Powerful centre Janse van Rensburg sealed the win when he took the ball just outside the Newcastle 22, burst through one tackle, handed off a second defender and rumbled over the whitewash. But a late, seriouslooking injury to Yarde – later confirmed to be a dislocated knee – was a worry for Diamond.
“[Yarde’s injury] is just horrendous,” he added. “It’s not nice to see – we won’t be watching that again. It’s a horrendous injury, dislocation of the knee by the looks of it so we’ll see what the specialist says.”