Sale vs Saracens - Friday night

[Puja]

Sale: L James; Roebuck, S James, Van Rensburg, Reed; R du Preez, De Klerk; Rodd, Ashman, Oosthuizen; Wiese, De Jager, Ross (capt), B Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: A van der Merwe, McIntyre, Schonert, JP du Preez, Taylor, Quirke, Tuilagi, Metcalf.

Saracens: Daly; Maitland, Lozowski, Tompkins, Malins; Goode, Davies; Mawi, George (capt), Koch; Isiekwe, Swinson, Itoje, Earl, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Woolstencroft, Barrington, Clarey, McFarland, Christie, De Haas, Taylor, Lewington.

Referee: Luke Pearce (RFU).

[Mikey Brown]

You could argue Daly is the fourth best fullback in that set of backs.

[Which Tyler]

You could argue Daly is the fourth best fullback in that set of backs.

5th, surely - and that's just from Saracens

[fivepointer]

Important game for Sale who unfortunately cant field the best of the duPreez's. They need wins to make top 4 and they are generally very strong at home.

This lad Metcalf looks a very good prospect. Hopefully he'll get a decent run out.

[chris1850]

Important game for Sale who unfortunately cant field the best of the duPreez's. They need wins to make top 4 and they are generally very strong at home.

This lad Metcalf looks a very good prospect. Hopefully he'll get a decent run out.

Hmm. Think Dan might challenge you on that!! Agree with you re Metcalf

[Oakboy]

Strange how Goode is the back-up FH ahead of Lozowski and Malins. Malins at FH, Daly on the wing and Goode at FB would have been interesting. I thought Lozowski looked good at FH early on and that would have put Daly at 13, his preferred club position. Obviously there are sound reasons for the positional line-up but they puzzle me a bit.

[Mellsblue]

McCall has obvs not got the memo that Malins is a 10.

[Banquo]

McCall has obvs not got the memo that Malins is a 10.

Its where he played mostly afore he went to Brizzle iirc. But not that much to be fair.

[FKAS]

Aled Davies gets away with another one there. Makes no attempt to charge down the Klerk kick, is very late and takes all the man (body not leg). No arms or even an attempt to lift them. Because contact was via the back and no the shoulder it's just a penalty. Pearce being incredibly lenient there.

[FKAS]

Scrappy game. Itoje immense and Sale indisciplined after a positive start.

[Peej]

Aled Davies gets away with another one there. Makes no attempt to charge down the Klerk kick, is very late and takes all the man (body not leg). No arms or even an attempt to lift them. Because contact was via the back and no the shoulder it's just a penalty. Pearce being incredibly lenient there.

The one on Ford a couple weeks back was far worse. Davies isn't helped by being bumped into Faf by Koch, but even so he's gone flying in out of control.

There's been a couple of "enthusiastic" clear outs that have gone unpunished

[Puja]

Gods, that was a terrible game. Awful advertisement for the Prem - low quality, low ambition, and riddled with errors.

Puja

[Danno]

Agreed. A lot of 'lets not lose' on show

[Spiffy]

McCall has obvs not got the memo that Malins is a 10.

Its where he played mostly afore he went to Brizzle iirc. But not that much to be fair.

Malins looks a good all round footballer with natural skills, decent initial acceleration and rugby brains. As discussed here before, the one area where he's lacking is out-and-out top end speed. This was evident again today when he was comprehensively out-gassed in a foot race with Sale flier Reed who was denied a try by the dead ball line. I'd like to see Malins concentrate on 10 but this would mean leaving Sarries and finding a club where he would be more or less guaranteed a spot as a starting FH (can't think of such a club at the moment.) Even at Sarries he is not Farrell's backup. Can't see him continuing to challenge for a wing spot at international level.

[fivepointer]

Gods, that was a terrible game. Awful advertisement for the Prem - low quality, low ambition, and riddled with errors.

Puja

I didnt have high hopes of a feast of running rugby but it was even worse than i feared.

[Oakboy]

Gods, that was a terrible game. Awful advertisement for the Prem - low quality, low ambition, and riddled with errors.

Puja

I didnt have high hopes of a feast of running rugby but it was even worse than i feared.

Agreed. I suppose Earl put himself well ahead of t'other Curry on the back row reserve list. Billy V kept himself off it and Itoje proved himself capable of being at the top of it, though better at lock. If that Sale 8 had a brain he might be useful.

[Spartan Shark]

Aled Davies gets away with another one there. Makes no attempt to charge down the Klerk kick, is very late and takes all the man (body not leg). No arms or even an attempt to lift them. Because contact was via the back and no the shoulder it's just a penalty. Pearce being incredibly lenient there.

The one on Ford a couple weeks back was far worse. Davies isn't helped by being bumped into Faf by Koch, but even so he's gone flying in out of control.

There's been a couple of "enthusiastic" clear outs that have gone unpunished

What is most irritating about the Davies challenge is that later in the game Curry was deemed to have committed a late challenge in attempting to charge down a Goode kick. Both were just penalties with no cards but if you look at the incidents Davies's was reckless, he was out of control. led with the shoulder. made contact with the head/shoulder area and endangered the opposition player. Curry's challenge was not endangering the player at all.

We need some consistency here from refs and someone impartial seeing both incidents might think that Saracens got away with one.....again!

[Spartan Shark]

Aaron Reed continues to show promise.....has some serious gas and an appreciation of space. He and Luke James looked the most promising of the Sale backs.

Shame we didn't see much of manu ball in hand but he put in some big hits on defence.....one on Billy V was a bit special for the Sale faithful

[Puja]

Aled Davies gets away with another one there. Makes no attempt to charge down the Klerk kick, is very late and takes all the man (body not leg). No arms or even an attempt to lift them. Because contact was via the back and no the shoulder it's just a penalty. Pearce being incredibly lenient there.

The one on Ford a couple weeks back was far worse. Davies isn't helped by being bumped into Faf by Koch, but even so he's gone flying in out of control.

There's been a couple of "enthusiastic" clear outs that have gone unpunished

What is most irritating about the Davies challenge is that later in the game Curry was deemed to have committed a late challenge in attempting to charge down a Goode kick. Both were just penalties with no cards but if you look at the incidents Davies's was reckless, he was out of control. led with the shoulder. made contact with the head/shoulder area and endangered the opposition player. Curry's challenge was not endangering the player at all.

We need some consistency here from refs and someone impartial seeing both incidents might think that Saracens got away with one.....again!

I actually thought Goode took a dive for the Curry challenge. There was definitely contact, but he was looking for an excuse to throw himself over.

Puja

[Spartan Shark]

I actually thought Goode took a dive for the Curry challenge. There was definitely contact, but he was looking for an excuse to throw himself over.

Puja[/quote]

Agreed....I think he might have landed on his big toe but the reaction suggested a more serious collision. Sarries seem to be adept at milking situations these days and other teams (and the refs) need to get wise to this

[twitchy]

I don't mind stick it up your jumper games if both teams have big guys like these have. I wouldn't want to watch it every week but it has its place. I enjoyed it.

Austin as right about sale not making it easy for themselves though.

[Banquo]

I looked at the stats, and Daly is down for 0 yards from FB?

[Oakboy]

I looked at the stats, and Daly is down for 0 yards from FB?

Attends his tutorial with Genge next week, I believe.

[Banquo]

I looked at the stats, and Daly is down for 0 yards from FB?

Attends his tutorial with Genge next week, I believe.

[Mellsblue]

I looked at the stats, and Daly is down for 0 yards from FB?

Attends his tutorial with Genge next week, I believe.

Seconded.