Sale’s league leading set piece earned them a ruthless 43-10 win over Newcastle Falcons in the Northern derby.
With the need for a win increasingly desperate for Falcons on derby day, the Sharks showed no remorse with a bonus point wrapped up within 35 minutes, four tries coming from just five visits to the opposition 22. Heading into the game, Sharks had boasted a 97.5% lineout accuracy rate that had provided the platform for five of their eight tries across three games.
Make that eight from 15 now, the near-impeccable set piece providing the chances for Arron Reed and Tom Roebuck’s first tries, as well as a penalty try. Both wingers collected braces, solidifying their unique-selling-points as Reed stepped and darted for his second and Roebuck climbed inconceivably high for his.
Given his man of the match performance last week was try-less, it was only right that Reed opened the scoring, the newly capped Scottish flyer cleaning up a bouncing ball and dotting down, before taking his second with thanks to Joe Carpenter; the fullback taking the impetus from a long kick-exchange to chip and chase in behind, before sumptuously offloading to Reed who turned opposite man Adam Radwan inside out to finish.
The first half was punctuated once again by Sharks’ ruthless red-zone efficiency, four tries being produced from just five 22 visits. The imperious set piece has much credit to take for that, Sharks’ third coming from a lineout penalty try, and fourth from a scrum penalty advantage that allowed Will Addison to score his first Sharks try in 2820 days after his six-year Irish hiatus.
Yet another came from lineout ball to begin the second half’s scoring, clean midfield possession allowing Sam Bedlow to bust through the line, he offloaded to Ben Curry who, at full pace, produced a wonderful skip pass through a crowd to find Tom Roebuck, who stepped past Ben Stevenson to score his third of the season.
As the lineout has become so reliable, so has Tom Roebuck’s aerial ability. There are few, if any, as good as him in aerial 50/50s in the country, and following a brief period of Newcastle ascendency in which Callum Chick scored from a pick and go, his skillset was on full show as he kept above Stevenson to claim a Tom Curtis cross field and scramble over the line.
