Sale Keep the faith to cruise past Lucs

Sale ........................ 48pts Luctonians ............ 5pts

JONATHAN Keep was hugely satisfied with his Sale side’s clinical display after they powered past a below-par Luctonians at Heywood Road.

The home side ran in eight tries in a convincing display, with eight different players charging over the whitewash as they continued their unbeaten home record.

Lucs, on the other hand, looked to be drawing a blank entirely after being outclassed throughout, but Jordan Street dotted down with seconds to spare to salvage some pride.

And Keep revealed he was pleased with his side’s management of the match and willingness to stick to a disciplined game plan, which allowed him to utilise his squad in the second period.

“At half-time we said ‘Don’t let them cross the line, don’t let them turn it into a run around game of sevens, [and] play to our structure’, which we generally did,” said Keep.

“[It] gave us a chance to play some lads who haven’t had much of a chance this year and they all did a great job which is good to see.”

Keep added his aim coming into the game was to ensure his side enjoyed a good first 20 minutes, and his players did not let him down.

Four tries in 11 sparking minutes before the halfhour mark through Chris Mayor, Sam Stelmaszek, Jonty Rawcliffe and Chris Johnson had the hosts firmly in control, Johnson converting two of those tries.

With the bonus point already tied up, Dan Birchall added another converted try on the stroke of half-time to make it 31-0 at the interval.

Three more tries followed as the home side continued to dominate, Matthew Bradley touching down five minutes after the restart.

Adam Aigbokhae charged over as he helped himself to a try and his side’s seventh, before Jake Barron crossed the whitewash for a converted try with eight minutes to spare, and completing the scoring for a Sale side which dominated from start to finish.

With the seconds ticking down, Lucs rallied and finally got on the scoresheet through Street’s unconverted try at the death, but it was scant consolation after being on the end of such a comprehensive defeat.

The result and performance did not impress Lucs head coach Ryan Watkins, who demanded his players have a long look at themselves if they are to turn around their poor form in recent weeks.

Watkins stressed he feels the structure of the club is in a healthy state, and urged the players to contribute more on match days.

“I think we do a lot for them as backroom staff,” he said.

“They get a lot of support, we have a good squad, we have good systems and structures – they’re there. But the individuals within that have got to do a lot more.

“I think they expect things to just happen. They haven’t done for a few weeks, so… it’s in their hands.”