RUGBY: No Luck of the Irish as the Shark bite back

SALE SHARKS  36 - 8  LONDON IRISH

Sale Sharks moved up to 7th position in the Aviva Premiership with a resounding 36-8 thrashing of London Irish at the A.J Bell stadium on Saturday, as the Sharks forwards powering them home to a big win in front their home fans and gave a good response to last weekend`s capitulation at Leicester Tigers. Sale boss Steve Diamond wasn't a happy camper with his side second half disappointment six days ago and wanted them show that they were a better side than and they certainly made amends for it too, with the home side picking up 5 tries in the match to which two of them came in the way of penalty tries with their opponents bullied upfront by the Sale pack as the Sharks claimed a much needed bonus point too in with the win.


The game started off with the visitors taking the early lead in the match after just twenty seconds in, when an infringement during a scrum led to the referee awarding a penalty to London Irish and Chris Noakes kicked over successfully to put them 3-0 up.  The visiting side had the lion share of possession in the opening five minutes of the game, but they just wasn't able to get too much going or make use of the ball when in their possession. Sale then began to stir and make some inroads on their opponents, with the Sharks scrum flexing their muscles as they forced back the Irish pack which then led to them moving nearer the line, before play switched to the right wing where space was open and saw the ball quickly moved and had Michael Paterson throwing it over the last defender and David Seymour went over the line for a try and had Danny Cipriani kick the conversion for a 7-3 Sharks lead.

Sale`s dominance in the scrum was evident and saw them over power the visitors time and time again, which led to another penalty being awarded to the Sharks and a chance to pull further ahead with Cipriani kicking at goal, but the fly half just pulled his attempt wide of the uprights and a chance went begging by the hosts. London Irish then had a patch in the game where they threatened the Sharks solid defense as they tried to find little gaps in the Sale side, but the defence stood up to them well and suffocated all play to which they weren't able to create any clear chances in the half. At the mid way point in the first half it saw the visitors given a penalty from a scrum and had Noakes strike the post with his kick and gave Sale a lucky escape.
Irish was coming up against a mean defence in the Sale back line and was making it extremely difficult to penetrate through and they also didn`t really help themselves either when they were making far too many handling errors and unforced ones for that as it seemed to plague the visitors in the game throughout the contest. Sale`s Samoan Sam Tuitupou then put in a crunching tackle in on fly half Chris Noakes as the London Irish man took too long with the pass and saw them hammered in midfield, to which he stayed down after Noakes  felt the full force of the New Zealander in the tackle.


The Sharks driving maul was once more using its power to full affect and saw them move up field gaining twenty metres, before Captain Dan Braid then made a break from the maul and led to their opponents getting penalised again and gave Cipriani another chance to extend the lead for Sale and this time he made no mistake with as he made 10-3 to the Sharks. Once more the Sale forwards asserted more pressure on the Irish back line and led to David Paice being shown the yellow card for a late hit in a good build up by Sale, which led to a line out being won by the hosts and the forwards driving towards the try line where Braid was the man to score the try and make it 15-3 for the Sharks with Cipriani hitting the post with the kick.
Sale were dominant at set pieces and when they earned another penalty, it saw the Sharks sensing blood now and Danny Cipriani chose to kick for the corner as the Sharks  looked in search of one more big push before the end of the half. The driving maul that was like a wrecking ball, simply ploughed through the London Irish defense and with an infringement by Luke Narraway in trying to stop the Sale juggernaut on route to the line, it led to a second London player sitting in the sin bin for ten minutes and the award of a penalty try to the hosts for a 22-3 lead at the half with the conversion added.

Will Cliff in his 100th game for Shark

Some Sale fans and management would have wondered whether the Shark could maintain this lead or do what has been done many times this season and have the men from the AJ Bell Stadium relinquish the lead in a second half collapse and let many a wins slip through their fingers.  As it was, the home side let their opponents get by easily at times through their defense and needed some good last ditch tackling to stop the advancing attackers from getting by them, with Noakes for the Irish managing to break a couple of lax tackles by the Sale players and saw him just stopped in his tracks with no support in coming by his team mates in the rare attacks they did have.
Cipriani missed another penalty for the hosts with the Sharks getting more and more aggressive and carving the Irish side open a bit more now than previously in the game, with the away side making more mistakes and causing problems for themselves too with their handling being the biggest let down for the southern side.  Sale was dismantling the London scrum to pieces and saw them awarded another penalty to which the following drive towards to the line brought the referee once again to award a penalty try for the Sharks and had the kick converted for a 29-3 points lead.


Sale tried to force the play a bit more as they had threatened all over the pitch whenever moving forward and saw the London Irish side finding it really hard to stop them and nearly brought another try soon after, when good build up play saw the ball switch to the other side of the pitch and a little clever Cipriani`s pass to Tom Arscott on the wing went slightly forward and brought an end to a good passage of play for the home side.  The Irish then had Alex Lewington break through a couple of Sale defenders and when he looked on course for a try, a Mike Haley tackle right at the death by the corner flag saw him manage to drag his opponent out of play before he grounded the ball and kept the score as it was after the TMO gave no try.
Danny Cipriani last action of the game saw him almost create a try out of nothing for the Sharks, with them looking even more dangerous up front and when then visitors thought they had everything covered a clever little kick put in behind the defense and towards the left corner, just had too much pace on it for Arscott and the ball ran dead.  The visitors did get some joy with ten minutes to go from the end, when a counter maul by the London Irish pack had Captain George Skivington going over for a try to make it 29-8 with Noakes missing the conversion.

In the 75th minute of the game, Sale grabbed their fifth and final try of the match as some lovely aggressive attacking play by the forwards saw Nick Macleod break away from the opponents and then made a lovely little pass to Andy Forsyth for the try to take them over the 30 points barriers with Macleod converting the extra points on offer for a 36-8 score to see the Sharks pick up a massive victory and move up the table.


The game also marked three milestone in the match with the 5th try also happening to be Sale`s 100^th try in AJ Bell stadium since moving there in 2012 and also saw Will Cliff reach 100 games for the Sharks, as well as Marc Jones who saw him play in his 150th game for the club. Sale put in a great performance to see the Salford-based side rising up the table with a fantastic win and will look to improve on this win as they face Harlequins next Friday night at the Stoop.