Diamond hits out at officials’ denial of Webber bite claim
Newcastle 22 Sale 17
Basement side Newcastle have finally bared their teeth in a difficult Gallagher Premiership campaign – this third successive victory taking them to within three points of Worcester in 11th.
Unfortunately, their comeback success was overshadowed by the claim from Sale hooker Rob Webber that he had been bitten on the arm by a Falcons player after a firsthalf melee involving several players from both sides. Suspicion fell on Calum Green.
“Rob has clearly gone to the referee and showed him the bite and it’s bleeding and the referee said there’s no clear evidence, but what more evidence do you need?” said Steve Diamond, Sale’s director of
rugby. “I must be on a different planet to those three officials – it’s madness – but we’ll see.”
Newcastle went into the match at St James’ Park, which was billed “The Big One”, seven points adrift after Worcester won 27-25 at Bristol. But Dean Richards’s side gave themselves renewed hope of beating the drop by coming back from 10-6 down at half-time, with scrum-half Sonatane Takulua kicking five penalties and converting a Toby Flood try.
Sale were quick out of the blocks. Scrum-half Faf de Klerk sparked a sixth-minute try with a sweeping run and an offload to Tom Curry, who sent Denny Solomona over. De Klerk’s conversion made it 7-0.
He added a 13th-minute penalty, but Takulua got Newcastle on the board with a penalty almost immediately when Curry failed to roll away in the tackle area.
Newcastle were reduced to 14 when Logovi’i Mulipola was sent to
the sin-bin in the 18th minute, either for not rolling away or an early tackle on De Klerk after a quickly-taken penalty.
There was more controversy when Andrew Davidson charged down De Klerk’s kick and appeared to have scored, but he was judged to have lost control of the ball.
Newcastle gained a foothold after a pulsating run by Sinoti Sinoti led to a Takulua penalty, which made it 10-6 in the 31st minute. It looked as if Sale had snatched a second try right on half-time with a kick ahead and touchdown, but Byron Mcguigan was ruled to have been in front of the kicker.
Newcastle started the second half quicker than Sale had started
the first with a surging run to the visitors’ line, where Curry tried to kill the release and was sent to the sin-bin. Newcastle opted for the scrum and Flood cut back inside to score, Takulua’s conversion putting his side 13-10 up.
It was all Newcastle as their forwards forced a turnover penalty in the 46th minute and Takulua hammered it over to make it 16-10.
Takulua added two more penalties. Three minutes from time, Sale gave themselves a chance of snatching victory with a spectacular onehanded finish from Mcguigan in the corner and a De Klerk conversion making it 22-17. But Newcastle were able to control the ball in the closing seconds.