Bris vs Sale, Friday

[jimKRFC]

Bristol:
15. Luke Morahan (87 apps), 14. Ioan Lloyd (52 apps), 13. Semi Radradra (25 apps), 12. Sam Bedlow (42 apps), 11. Henry Purdy (30 apps); 10. Callum Sheedy (118 apps), 9. Harry Randall (74 apps); 1. Max Lahiff (35 apps), 2. Harry Thacker (63 apps), 3. Kyle Sinckler (27 apps), 4. Joe Joyce (135 apps) (c), 5. John Hawkins (27 apps), 6. Chris Vui (77 apps), 7. Dan Thomas (97 apps), 8. Fitz Harding (18 apps).

Subs: 16. Will Capon (55 apps), 17. Jake Woolmore (92 apps), 18. John Afoa (75 apps), 19. Ed Holmes (77 apps), 20. Jake Heenan (63 apps), 21. Andy Uren (124 apps), 22. Piers O’Conor (91 apps), 23. Jack Bates (12 apps).

Sale:

15: Luke James, 14: Byron McGuigan, 13: Rob du Preez, 12: Rohan Janse van Rensburg, 11: Marland Yarde; 10: AJ MacGinty, 9: Will Cliff; 1: Bevan Rodd, 2: Ewan Ashman, 3: Nick Schonert; 4: Jean-Luc du Preez, 5: Lood de Jager; 6: Jono Ross, 7: Tom Curry, 8: Dan du Preez.
16: Tommy Taylor, 17: Simon McIntyre, 18: Coenie Oosthuizen; 19: JP du Preez, 20: Ben Curry; 21: Gus Warr, 22: Sam James, 23: Simon Hammersley

Referee: Wayne Barnes (250th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Anthony Woodthorpe & Jamie Leahy. TMO: Tom Foley.
Citing Officer: James Hall.

Sanderson setting out his plabs: Sanderson said - "We want to bring them to a fight. That's what happened at our place, it was 0-0 at half-time before we turned them over. The more occasions we can make it into a physical battle and a proper fight, the better it'll be for us."

Personally it'd be nice to see signs of progress and some attacking play actually coming together rather than ending in knocks ons or penalties.

[Peej]

I think Sale's approach might be a bit limiting. Bristol are fairly vulnerable at the minute and not the sum of their parts. Just making it an arm wrestle rather than taking the game to them with some hard aggressive running seems a bit off

[Scrumhead]

Agreed. I’d have thought Sale would want to be a bit more ambitious than simply going for a fight. That Bristol side looks like it’s there for the taking.

[fivepointer]

Sale cant win away and Bris cant win....anywhere. I dont think this one's going to be a thriller but i'm hoping Bris get a win to get their season going.

[Scrumhead]

I don’t see it TBH. Unless Radradra conjures up some magic or Randall’s sniping catches Sale out, that Bristol side looks distinctly second best.

[chris1850]

Interested to see how Rodd and Ashman go in the scrum. Rodd more than held his own last week against Wasps but Sinckler is a step up. His play in the loose was first class. Hopefully more of the same. Also hope to see us compete at the line out more often - we have one of the world's best line out operators after all yet we rarely go up to compete. Big test for RDP against Semi. We do well against Bris when we get to Sheedy early so pleased to see TC starting.

[twitchy]

I can see this being a good game in front of the home crowd on a friday night. Conditions will be foul but i'm looking forward to it.

[FKAS]

Really good reffing from Barnes. Four penalties oyn a row within 5m of try line no warning, doesn't matter we're 8 mins into the game, yellow card Curry.

Two tries in 10 mins. Sale score a really nice multi phase effort and Bristol score a rolling maul effort and no I didn't type that the wrong way round for any late comers.

[Raggs]

Feel sorry for Curry there, he did some fantastic work in that sequence, but then does the "right" thing to kill the ball, and pays the team price.

[FKAS]

The "right thing" has cost his team 12 possibly 14 points. Sale need to get him back on.

[Raggs]

The "right thing" has cost his team 12 possibly 14 points. Sale need to get him back on.

Yeah, but whilst it's good reffing from Barnes, how many times would that actually be a yellow from anyone else?

[FKAS]

The "right thing" has cost his team 12 possibly 14 points. Sale need to get him back on.

Yeah, but whilst it's good reffing from Barnes, how many times would that actually be a yellow from anyone else?

Very true. Saw it last week with Tigers Vs Falcons. Falcons conceded three or four penalties (could have been more) before the Martin try and because it's a try not a word is said to the Falcons captain. It's very frustrating. We have seen Barnes start to bin cynical offences even if a try is scored afterwards which the others refs are slowly starting to pick up so hopefully a greater clamp down on repeat offending 5m out will catch on.

Sale looking better now Curry is back on but Rob du Preez can't defend in the 13 channel can he.

[Peej]

Sale have looked best when they've actually run the ball, and they've found space on the wings. When they've tried to suck Bris in for a fight they have come off second best

[Peej]

Offside doesn't seem to apply to either team tonight

[Peej]

Was that really not worth looking at closer? Radradra absolutely levelled Curry from a standing start

[Magic_sponge]

For me, as a neutral, that touch by Curry was considerably less clear than the forward pass from Radradra for the try. Forward passes in particular seem very inconsistent (not just this game)

[FKAS]

Offside doesn't seem to apply to either team tonight

Ha very true.

The Bristol intensity in defence has been very good. Sale don't seem to know what to do in attack if the forwards are stopped dead in their tracks.

[FKAS]

For me, as a neutral, that touch by Curry was considerably less clear than the forward pass from Radradra for the try. Forward passes in particular seem very inconsistent (not just this game)

Yes and the Hammersley knock on. Sale might be slightly annoyed about that post game.

Rodd is rather annoyed by the scrum decisions in the game.

[Puja]

For me, as a neutral, that touch by Curry was considerably less clear than the forward pass from Radradra for the try. Forward passes in particular seem very inconsistent (not just this game)

Yes and the Hammersley knock on. Sale might be slightly annoyed about that post game.

Rodd is rather annoyed by the scrum decisions in the game.

He's right to be - he's got absolutely robbed on a couple of occasions, most notably on the one where he got done for dissent afterwards.

Puja

[FKAS]

For me, as a neutral, that touch by Curry was considerably less clear than the forward pass from Radradra for the try. Forward passes in particular seem very inconsistent (not just this game)

Yes and the Hammersley knock on. Sale might be slightly annoyed about that post game.

Rodd is rather annoyed by the scrum decisions in the game.

He's right to be - he's got absolutely robbed on a couple of occasions, most notably on the one where he got done for dissent afterwards.

Puja

Yeah I rather thought he lost that one because he'd been complaining to Barnes. Barnes seemed to be less than impressed with the Sale backchat, he reversed a breakdown penalty for a Sale player screaming an appeal for the penalty shortly afterwards if memory serves.

Sale maybe lack a coolheaded leader to get them on the good side of officials. They could do with that as they aren't averse to giving away lots of penalties and collecting yellow cards.

[fivepointer]

Enjoyable 1st half but the 2nd was a bit of a slog as neither side could string together much.
Bris showing some real dog in defence and there were signs that their attack might be stirring.
SAle unlucky with some of the decisions. How can you not get the penalty at a scrum when the opposition tight head has his knee on the floor? Rodd was right to be furious. That was a rank bad call.

[Adam_P]

This was a much more entertaining game than I was expecting. Agree that Radradra's pass was certainly worth a second look - I think it may have just about been flat but hard to say when we didn't get multiple angles on the replay as the TMO would give us. I do think both Sale tries were correctly chalked off, but it is odd that the two Sale tries were scrutinised yet Barnes waved that Bristol one straight through. I did enjoy him penalising Curry for begging for a penalty at the breakdown though.

Thought Llyod was fantastic on the wing, ran some very clever angles to manipulate the defence and the offload for the final try was lovely.

[chris1850]

Watch the slo-mo replay of the Curry 'knock on'. The path of the ball and the position of the logo on it doesn't change one iota as it passes/brushes Curry's hand. It was never knocked forwards. Barnes was poor generally last night but RDP being a turnstile at 13 cost us two tries

[Adam_P]

You clearly see Curry's fingers/thumb move as they contact the ball

[jimKRFC]

Given that the Sale site is whinging & the Bristol site were whinging about the 1st two Sale tries (forwards passes) - Barnes probably did a half decent job. Can't comment on the scrums as I haven't the seen the game yet*.

Showing her immaculate sense of timing my Mother-in-law died yesterday, so it's been a bit chaotic and the off (covid)/on (reduced testing) skiing trip next week is now likely off again...