Saracens physicality proves to be too much for this dogged Sale Sharks team as they go down 47-18 at the StoneX Stadium.
Saracens got off to a flyer and after back-to-back Sale Sharks penalties, Poppy Cleall crossed for her first at the back of a strong maul. Sale defended bravely but Saracens’ physicality proved to be too much and crossed again give them a 14-0 lead within the first five minutes. Sale managed to get themselves back into the game and worked the ball well into the Saracens’ 22. After back to back penalty’s Daley-Mclean opted for the posts and made the score 14-3.
Saracens came back hard after the three points and it wasn’t long before Cleall was over for her 2nd try with a pick from the base of the scrum, 19-3 to Saracens. Straight from the restart Saracens were back on the attack making some big dents in the Sharks defence getting to within 5M of the Sharks line with relative ease and it was Cleall again who crossed on the 18th minute to bring up her hattrick! To be fair to this young Sharks team they came back strong and gave Saracens’ as good as they got and after some big carries from Houghton and Perris-Redding, Sale were awarded the penalty which KDM gratefully knocked over to make it 26-6 with 10 minutes left in the half.
Some brilliant work from Nicola Howat and Lisa Neumann saw Sale finally crash over for their first try of the afternoon. After a Lisa Neumann break and a number of phases in the Sarries ’22 Sale were awarded the penalty, Jess Roberts went quickly and crashed over which KDM converted with ease, 26-13 at the break.
The second half was much of the same of the first as Saracens crossed for two quick tries, one through the electric pace of Uren and then through the brute force of Campbell, 40-13 to the North Londoners with 20 minutes to play. Say what you like about this Sale team but they certainly don’t go down without a fight and on the 60th minute mark Sale produced the champagne moment through Lauren Delany. Lisa Neumann caught the ball within the Sale 22 and beat 3 tacklers to take her up to half way, she managed to offload to KDM who sent over a glorious Crossfield kick to Delany who chipped the ball over her opposite winger, caught it on the full and went the distance to score in the corner! Saracens finished proceedings how they started it with another try from close range as replacement Hooker, Mackenzie Carson crashed over, 47-18 and with that the game.
A really dogged display from this young Sharks outfit but Saracens proved why they’re the best in the business and took the full 5 points. Next up for Sale is DMP at home on Saturday 20th March.
Saracens Women
Clark, Campbell, Rose, Galligan, Taylor, Evans, Fleetwood, Cleall; Hayward, Harrison, Clapp, Miell, Corrigan, Uren, McKenna.
Carson, Clifford, Cleall, Taylor, Packer, Swords, Casey, Martin.
Sale Sharks Women
Abu Marqouq, Kelly, Houghton, Wyn Davies, Howat, Perris-Redding, Elbeck, Stafford; Roberts, Daley-Mclean, Ounsley, Calton, Neumann, Delaney, Wooden.
Fielding, Kurtz, Kyle, Ridgway, Winter, Bell, Bawden, Wallace.
