Mulchrone in for two as Sale exorcise demons
FERGUS Mulchrone scored twice as Sale FC put the demons of last season to bed with an emphatic bonuspoint win against Blackheath.
Six tries in a dominant display by forwards Jarad Williams, Andrew Hughes and Dan Birchall, winger Jack Moorhouse and a second from Mulchrone saw the hosts grab their highest tally so far this season at Heywood Road.
Director of rugby Jonathan Keep was delighted at the third win in four games, with Sale dominating in every facet – scrum, line-out and in their kicking game – to beat Blackheath for the first time in the reformed club’s history.
He said: “I’m really happy, we always knew if we stayed in the game until half-time and corrected what we didn’t quite get right in last week’s Rosslyn Park defeat we would have a good chance.
“It wasn’t great last year against Blackheath, one of our worst performances of the season away and two red cards at home but our discipline was good here – our structure is clearly sinking in.
“It was our most complete performance of the season by far. It’s really building for us now, we want to get ourselves more consistent week to week to continue our momentum.
“Last season was about consolidation but we’re aiming to be top five in the league, if we win at least half our away games and keep our good form at home that should be doable.”
Blackheath fly-half Mark Cooke missed a penalty after Sale No.8 Williams conceded a penalty at kickoff, and the first half-hour then quickly turned into a one-sided affair.
Williams showed brilliant footwork at an early scrum, and at the second time of asking did a pick-and-go from five metres out to muscle his way over the whitewash.
Sale fly-half Chris Johnson’s tactical kicking put Blackheath under pressure throughout, and was unlucky when wing James Williams was just short of one kick-chase to score in the 16th minute.
The away side were lucky not to concede after two wayward lineouts but a break from deep by scrumhalf Jack Daly freed up centre Leo Fielding to score a 50-metre run-in.
Sale skipper Hughes dotted down a five-metre
catch-and-drive just before half-time and – after an early good bit of cross-field phase by several Blackheath players after the break and fly-half Mark Cooke scoring with the boot – the second-half turned into a rout for the hosts.
From 17-13, Sale scored 26 unanswered points. Prop Birchall scored after a Mulchrone break through the middle. The full-back then sealed the bonus point before a break by lock Rhys Davies opened up the away side and Mulchrone found a spilled ball to score.
Moorhouse dotted down from a line-out drive to round off the win with Blackheath openside Josh Poole finishing some good build-up play for a late consolidatory try.
Blackheath coach James Shanahan said: “We were appalling, I’m disappointed in everything we did. Our forwards were poor, setpiece didn’t function and our kicking was terrible.”