Sharks stay in the hunt but Diamond left frustrated
IT IS usual that a 38-point difference will result in contrasting emotions, but it is odd that the team on the right end of the result should be the least content.
The result was effectively decided when the squads were named. Sale leant on experience, effectively guaranteeing the win, while Cardiff went down the stereotypical Anglo-Welsh Cup route of picking a youthful outfit.
They were outmuscled and outplayed; but to their credit, not outfought and forced the hosts into a litany of errors leading Sharks’ boss Steve Diamond to remark: “Anybody watching that would think we had a knock-on coach the amount of times we gave the ball away.”
In the end, Blues’ head honcho for this competition, Richard Hodges, was left “proud” by their display having seen his side stand toe-to-toe with quite a few of Sale’s first team.
“We’ve had a load of boys make their Blues debut from tier two of our academy,” Hodges said.
“We can be disappointed with some of the detail that was lacking, but we asked for massive workrate and we got that.”
The Blues could only manage one score, when Jarrod Evans slotted a simple penalty from in front of the posts, but they frustrated the hosts for much of the encounter.
It seemed the ideal contest for Denny Solomona to stretch his legs and truly display a running ability to go alongside the wing’s well known finishing credentials, but Sale were error-strewn when attempting to move the ball into wide channels.
“When you’ve got a player like Denny Solomona and you only get the ball to him once in the second half it’s not great game-management,” Diamond said.
The New Zealander did score, taking Tom Curry’s pass five metres out and weaving his way across the whitewash, but that was his only action of the match.
Instead, the Sale pack took over and the close range efforts seemed to be to their liking. Two such tries from Jonathan Mills and Laurence Pearce gave them a commanding 19-3 lead at the interval.
The No. 8 then repeated his trick from earlier by touching down after shaking off a couple of would-be tacklers before quick-fire yellow cards for Seb Davies (dangerous tackle) and Morgan Sienawski (deliberate knock-on) gave the hosts further opportunities to increase their buffer.
They could only score once through Neil Briggs while the Blues were down to 13 men, but the home side did finish with a flourish thanks to James Flynn and a penalty try.
Sale finish at Harlequins next week, likely needing a win to progress.