RUGBY: Sharks feast on Scarlets

   SALE  SHARKS     38          SCARLETS    3 

After the big fixture this past Friday night between England and Wales, it saw another clash between the two major rugby nations at the AJ Bell Stadium with the Sale Sharks welcoming Scarlets in the final group game of the LV Cup.  It wasn’t exactly in keeping with the red hot atmosphere or played in nerve wrecking conclusion like the Six Nation game, but what it didn`t lack was the hard tackling in the match. 

For the visitors it had saw the struggling PRO 12 side missing a lot of players in their ranks, due to international call ups and with some being rested or injured for the dead rubber match, it led to Scarlets playing a rather youth side.

For Sale this was their 46^th competitive game to be played in Salford since their move back in 2012, and it was one of their most dominating displays too in that time. However Sale Sharks coach Steve Diamond called it a ‘disjointed and lackadaisical victory’.  

A crowd of 4,312 turned out to see the cup clash and it witnessed the home side taking an early lead in the 4^th minute of play, when the Sharks driving maul had the Welsh side struggling to cope with their power behind the mauls and led to them powering towards the line, where captain Dan Braid went over to score the opening try.  Nick Macleod added the conversion for Sale to lead 7-0 and the try by Braid brought up Sale’s 1000^th point on the season.

Scarlets tried to hit back right away, as they thought they had grabbed a try when Darran Harris managed to escape the clutches of the Sale defence and go over. Unfortunately for the Hooker, despite losing his shirt in the attack he was to be denied by the touch judge who flagged him out of play for stepping on the whitewash in the build up.

Both sides then adopted the use of the kicking game to try and gain an advantage in the contest, but the hosts gave up a penalty right in front of their posts and handed Frazier Climo a chance to see the visitors get points on the board, just before the quarter of an hour mark.  Sale then restored their lead and more, when a Jonny Leota run was halted but with quick passing it led to a lovely team move by the hosts, which resulted in Mike Haley crashing over for the second try for Sale on 17 minutes to see the home side leading 14-3, with Macleod adding the extra points for the hosts.

Both sides made some thunderous tackles on their opponents and the noise of some of the blood and thunder hits reverberated around the AJ Bell Stadium.  Sale continued to bore through the Scarlets side, but had the referee blowing his whistle a little too often, which was a bit of an annoyance to both sides.

Sale’s David Seymour shown off his juggles skills, as the ball was like a bar of soap at times for the two teams and it saw the Sharks man do extremely well to take the ball in the end.  Mike Haley was then on the verge of scoring the try of the game on 34 minutes, after Tom Arscott high ball came down for Haley but the half-back wasn`t able to take it cleanly after the young sensation this year for Sale was as quick as a greyhound coming up first with the ball.  

Sharks stalwart Mark Cueto then put a chip kick in behind his opponents and saw Haley yet again chasing it down and when it looked like he just got it from his opponent, Haley fumbled it for a little knock on.

Scarlets then saw them have their only real attack of the game, when Adam Warren ran into a gap in the hosts defense and dashed for the try line and with the Scarlets man avoiding a couple of tackles, he looked odds on to score for the visitors but a fast back tracking Mike Haley managed to make a superb try saving tackle on him and saw him deny the away side, to see the Sharks keeping a clean sheet in the Scarlets try column.

Tom Arscott then picked up the first of his two tries in the game, with the

the right-winger celebrating after signing a new 2-year deal at the Sharks and saw him run half the length of the field, fending off all opposing players to go over for the third try in the game and see Sale`s lead extend to 21-3 with the conversion on the stroke of half time.

AJ BELL STADIUM - Scarlets v Sale prior to kick off

Second half and it kept much too the same theme as the first half did, with Sale controlling the game against a vastly inexperience looking Scarlets side, who didn’t even seem to have any kind of purpose to their play what so ever.  They did have brief moments of joy, as they won a couple of penalties off the home side when Sale were a bit too eager in the scrums and gave away some needless calls.

The pressure from the Sharks forwards kept on coming and it saw their play stifled for periods in the half, with the Welsh side making some vital stops to keep the score down as best they could. However they couldn`t with stand the Sharks attack for too long as in the 54^th minute of play it saw Sale scoring their fourth try of the game, with the forwards ploughing forward and getting nearer the Scarlets try line, before some good patience build up play led to the ball being transferred quickly towards the right flank and Tom Arscott was left in space to easily put the ball down for a try.

Joe Ford who came on fellow Fly-Half in Nick Macleod saw his first action miss with the conversion and left the score ticking onto 26-3 for the home side. The game became largely one-sided as it went along and saw some good breaks from the Sharks Scrum Half’s in Nathan Fowles and Mark Easter, with the defense being pulled opened once more and hosts finding the gaps to run into.  Both sides went through a little period of the game as they started making a few handling errors along with knock-on`s that saw the play kind of become stop-start and had more of a training exercise than a competitive game in truth too.

With Sale massively on top and out classing their opponents, it saw the Sharks sensing blood and it came as no surprise to see them going over for yet another try, and it came from the man making his 100^th appearance for the club in Tom Brady to which the winger dived for the corner to see the Sharks tearing their opponents apart.

The home side started to become too clever for their own good at times, and in truth they really should have been aiming for at least the 50 points barrier.  The Scarlets sent a youthful side up to Salford and it certainly showed, with the Pro 12 side struggling to cope with the powerful mauling unit of the Sharks forwards. Barring the missing duo of Danny Cipriani and Chris Cusiter from the Sale side and it was mainly a full strength team for Sharks coach Steve Diamond to pick from.

With the game all but sewn up there was still time for the home side to score their sixth try of the game, when Back-Rower Viliami Fihaki managed to ground the ball under a pile of bodies and see the hosts come out 38-3 and set them up a hard push in the league now with testing games ahead.

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