Depleted Sharks beaten in opener
SALE Sharks saw the chance to get their Heineken Champions Cup campaign off to a perfect start slip away in Glasgow but with reinforcements still to arrive, Steve Diamond isn’t panicking after the 13-7 defeat.
A dominant Glasgow Warriors performance for an hour at Scotstoun saw the hosts lead 13-0 but when Coenie Oosthuizen forced his way over the line, the Sharks were suddenly within a score.
They were even camped in the Warriors 22 in the closing stages but were unable to grab the converted try that would’ve given them a win.
Still shorn of their four World Cup final participants – Tom Curry, Mark Wilson, Faf de Klerk and Lood de Jager who return this week – Sale were undermanned, whereas Scotland’s sub-par performance in Japan meant Glasgow’s stars have been back on domestic duty for a number of weeks.
Despite defeat on their return to top-level European competition for the first time since 2016-17, Diamond was optimistic after sealing a losing bonus point.
“We weathered the storm in the first half and if we’d gone in at just 6-0 down, with our bench I thought we might have been able to challenge a bit more – but it wasn’t to be,” said the Sale director of rugby.
“We just couldn’t get a foothold anywhere in the game and at 13-0 I thought we were about to fall off the edge of a cliff.
“But we didn’t and instead we managed to salvage it and make it competitive again – I thought that it was probably a pretty fair result.
“We’ll know where we are in the competition next week after La Rochelle at home. The World Cup lads will be back and, while I’m not suggesting they are the cavalry, one or three of them do make a difference.
“Then we’ll see where we go. I think the double header against Exeter will be the deciding factor for us.”
In truth, Glasgow could have led by more than the 13 points they did at the break but were wasteful in attack despite dominating the set-pieces, the breakdown and the collisions.
Impressive fly-half Adam Hastings kicked two early penalties for the hosts, and also saw his delicate chip narrowly bounce away from the onrushing D.T.H. van der Merwe, before Warriors got their try just before the break.
Scrum-half George Horne darted down the blindside, fed Sam Johnson and he popped to consummate finisher Van Der Merwe – the recently-retired Canadian international cutting inside Marland Yarde and arcing past Simon Hammersley for the score which Hastings converted.
The game looked gone at 13-0 but with 20 minutes left, Embrose Papier fed Oosthuizen and the loosehead prop dragged two helpless Warriors over the try-line with him, before AJ MacGinty’s conversion left the home fans suddenly looking nervous.
But the late pressure couldn’t be converted to points and Sale head back to Salford with just a single point, although that gives them something to build on ahead of hosting La Rochelle next Sunday.