Sale put on passing masterclass in slick try
If the Premiership Rugby Cup is there to allow some clubs to blood some youngsters into professional rugby, Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson would have liked what he saw yesterday at the Stoop against Harlequins.
A team full of up and coming players, with a mix of experienced heads, beat the reigning English champions Harlequins 34-29 last night in London, scoring some cracking tries in the process. Their third try was particularly impressive as their backs showed the full bag of tricks with their passing.
The try was finished by Simon Hammersley, but this was a very well worked team try, which involved the entire backline. From the long pass from scrum-half to Will Cliff to inside centre Tom Curtis, to his pull back pass for fly-half Kieran Wilkinson wrapping around, to his quick flick to blindside winger Jack Metcalf, to his one handed offload to fullback Joe Carpenter, to his perfect pass to allow Hammersley to run onto the ball at pace, this was a well executed move under serious pressure.
Sale will hope that this will give them a bit of momentum ahead of a crunch match against Saracens this Friday at the AJ Bell in the Gallagher Premiership.
Take a look at the try:
Harlequins Starting XV:
15 Nick David, 14 Hayden Hyde, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Lennox Anyanwu, 11 Cassius Cleeves, 10 Ross Chisholm, 9 Scott Steele; 1 Jordan Els, 2 Joe Gray, 3 Rhys Litterick, 4 George Hammond, 5 Christian Scotland-Williamson, 6 Matas Jurevicius, 7 Will Evans, 8 Viliami Taulani
Replacements: 16 Sam Riley, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Mak Wilson, 19 Will Trenholm, 20 Archie White, 21 Jack Stafford, 22 Jake Murray, 23 Bryn Bradley
Sale Sharks Starting XV:
15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Simon Hammersley, 13 Joe Bedlow, 12 Tom Curtis, 11 Jack Metcalf, 10 Kieran Wilkinson, 9 Will Cliff; 1 Ben Carlile, 2 Tommy Taylor, 3 Cal Ford, 4 Dom Barrow, 5 Matt Postlethwaite, 6 Ewan Murphy, 7 Ethan Caine, 8 Rouban Birch.
Replacements: 16 James Gulliver, 17 Tumy Onasanya, 18 James Harper, 19 Ben Bamber, 20 Nick Brown, 21 Nye Thomas, 22 Elliott Gourlay.
