Matchday Live

#YourSharks fall to defeat in the Premiership Rugby Cup as an experienced Wasps Rugby side run in seven tries to claim a 41-26 victory over a Sale side brimming with academy talent.

Wasps got off to a quick start at the AJ Bell after winning a penalty after the kick-off setting up a line out inside the Sharks 22. The visitors took the line out quickly, catching out the Sharks defence allowing fly-half Charlie Atkinson to set up Zach Kibirigie, with the winger running in to score after just two minutes.

The Sharks responded well though with the first quarter seeing the home side control both possession and territory using their traditionally abrasive style. The Sharks onslaught led to some heavy tackling and dogged defence from both sides with Wasps dealing well with the threat until Sale finally crossed the line on their sixth attempt, with hooker Tommy Taylor crossing the whitewash at the back of a driving maul.

Taylor’s try levelled the scores with 20 minutes to play in the first half, only for Wasps’ scrum-half Porter to tap and go with a penalty from 30 metres and send his side seven points ahead almost immediately after the Sharks try. The visitors held out until the break with the scores at the interval 7-14.

The Sharks started quickly after the break scoring from another driving maul after Curtis Langdon controlled the play over the line form short range, only for things to go downhill when no8 Rouban Birch was sin-bionned for a cynical offence just moments later. The visitors running in three tries with Sale a man down for ten minutes.

All was not lost for Sale though, with veteran scrum-half Will Cliff epitomising the club’s never say nie attitude, scoring a fantastic solo try after breaking through a gap at halfway. Cliff’s score was cancelled out by a further two tries for the visitors, before Sale’s Jack Metcalf capped things off and gave the Sharks family something to talk about on the way home as he ran in to score Sale’s bonus point try from an interception inside his own half with just seconds left on the clock.