Matchday Live

A defiant Sale Sharks fell short of an historic Champions Cup upset in 38-15 loss to an all-star Toulouse.

With English teams like Harlequins and Saracens succumbing to heavy defeats over the weekend, and Leicester’s 80-12 thrashing by Toulouse fresh in the memory, hopes for Sale were minimal going into this round of 16 tie vs the reigning European champions.

However, once the game finally kicked off after a 40 minute delay owing to a parachutist who got stuck on the stadium roof, Sale silenced doubters in typically physical fashion.

The visitors went into half time with an unlikely 15-10 lead, with tries from Luke James and Jonny Hill producing a well-earned advantage as international stars George Ford, Ben Curry, and Luke Cowan-Dickie all provided top class performances.

However, Toulouse’s international quality bench paid dividends after the break, and whilst keeping Sale scoreless, they opened the game up as they so often do to score three late tries to secure an away quarter final vs Toulon.

Few personnel match ups across the entire weekend were as enticing as the Ben and Tom Curry vs Jack Willis back row battle, and it was the latter who drew first blood with a pick-and-go try just moments after Gus Warr missed an intercept opportunity to go the length.

Ben Curry quickly gave reply, however, when he stormed through a Willis tackle to carry Sale into the Toulouse 22, and tidy ball retention enabled Rob du Preez to carry to the line and tee up James, who wriggled through Pierre-Louis Barassi’s tackle to score.

Capitalising on Thomas Ramos’ disallowed try owing to a somewhat casual finish, Sale took the lead through a George Ford penalty, before extending a 15-7 lead when Hill wrestled through a number of tackles to score from close range.

Sale were every bit deserving of their lead, but with two missed drop goals from Ford, a disallowed Tom Roebuck try, and a Ramos penalty they headed into the break just five to the good. That vulnerability was exploited five minutes into the second when Francois Cros bundled over down the blindside of a dummy maul, with Ramos’ touchline conversion giving Toulouse the lead.

That two point lead soon became nine , when after a sustained period of territorial pressure, Toulouse skipper Julien Marchand reached over from a pick and go.

Emblematic of their spirit, and undoubtable quality in competing with the best, Sale kept the double-reigning Top14 Champions at bay until the 75th minute before tired bodies began making mistakes. Ange Capuozzo was the man to capitalise, stepping through on kick return for a top class individual try, before replacement hooker Guillame Cramont rubbed salt in the wound with a close range score.