Sale coasted to a 40-7 bonus point win against Northern rivals Caldy as winger Obi Ene ran in four first half tries.
The Newcastle University graduate single handedly took Sale to their bonus point, tries in the fifth and 40th minute bookending a clinical first half on just his fifth senior appearance.
The five bonus points and considerable points difference places the home side top of their Premiership Cup Pool, and leaves Caldy floundering at the bottom of both the Cup and the Championship league table.
Given their green status in the Championship – this just their second season in it – it was always an uphill battle for the the Ravers, and the wait for a first win vs the Sharks goes on. For Sale, the main takeaway is that an already stacked winger arsenal in the club seems bolstered further.
With plenty to choose from, the pick of Ene’s tries was his first, the right winger combining with Rouban Birch to retain a Gus Warr cross field kick before beating two scrambling Caldy defenders to score in the fifth minute.
Ene’s next two finishes were carbon copies of one another, the 21-year-old strolling in almost untouched. The preceding phases of play did, however, showcase Sale’s all-court dominance on the night, his second profiting from the space left by Caldy defenders committed to a driving maul, and the third the product of a lovely Tom Curtis break, the fly half picking a pass off his bootlaces to break the Caldy line before being stopped short.
Sale, and Ene’s, blistering start was tempered in the third quarter, yellows to Sharks’ Sam Bedlow and the Ravers’ Dan Rabbette for a scuffle slowing down the game, but more Sale pressure told on the stroke of half time when Ene gratefully received another pass on his right flank and scrambled over the line.
With territory utterly sparse in the first half, Caldy were able to make their first forage into the Sharks 22 pay early in the second. Defence coach Byron McGuigan had warned of their driving maul in the week and they drew a penalty try from it in the 50th minute, Tom Burrow the man to go to the bin.
Their foothold, however, was short lived, and Sharks were soon cross field kicking their way past the Caldy defence with Alex Wills finally getting some possession on the left flank to score, before Tadgh McElroy inconspicuously dotted down from less than a metre out after Birch’s third line break of the evening for the final score.
