Sale Sharks succumbed to a record-breaking first half Northampton Saints rout to lose 47-17 in one of the most difficult evenings in the Sanderson era.
For only the second time in Sharks’ top flight history, they conceded six tries first half tries as Northampton put on a clinic in cross field kicking and counter attacking.
A second half downpour muted any hopes of a come back, despite a resurgent sequence in the third quarter, and with big England stars on international duty, there’s a lot of ground to make up as Sharks travel to Bath next week.
The half started as it intended to go on, England internationals Tommy Freeman and George Furbank breaking Sharks down out wide through a grubber and subsequently out wide through a well-executed set piece play within the opening ten minutes.
Sharks were able to even the game briefly, their lineout providing the goods once again as an impeccably set maul guided Luke Cowan-Dickie over, but the game was flipped on its head shortly after as Alex Wills, the 20-year-old drafted in from the travelling reserves, was sent to the sin bin for a mistimed aerial challenge. Saints ran riot with their numerical advantage, a set piece move gifting Ollie Sleightholme his first before Tom James ran in a superb counter attack to earn Saints the quickest bonus point of the season.
They then scored a third within eight minutes of the sin bin, Sleightholme benefitting from Roebuck misjudging a meanly weighted cross field kick, before George Hendy compounded Sharks’ misery to score Saints’ sixth as he intercepted a poorly weighted pass in midfield to score.
“Emotionally they’re a strong group, they’ll play for each other. I said they’ve got a choice, and in a game like this you can fold, you can concede and call it a night, or you can behave in a manner that shows respect for each other.”
Those were the words of Alex Sanderson emerging from the half time team talk with his team 40-10 down, and Sharks were the stronger of the two teams at the start of the second half.
Joe Carpenter profited off more good lineout platform to score from a well-timed Rob du Preez pass before Gus Warr was held off following more stellar work, but in hauntingly similar fashion to the first half, momentum was reversed when James Ramm profited from another midfield handling error to coast home for Saints’ seventh and final score.
