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Rough on Diamond


By gregory p
November 9 2015

The Sale players should be kicking their collective bums all the way up the M6 back to Manchester: it would at least save Steve Diamond the job.  They won the try count 2-1 and had the better of three quarters of the game but were mugged by a good twenty minutes spell from Quins immediately after half time leaving Quins 16-14 victors.  Quins will simply see it as four points in the credit column and the old cliché may apply – it’s a good side that can nick a win when they are not playing well.  For Sale it’s a big lost opportunity to lose the tag that they get homesick when they leave Salford – as implausible as that sounds to anyone who’s ever visited Salford.

Sale kicked off the first half and the outbreak of kick tennis that followed set the tone for most of the half – not that exciting.  Sale spent most of it in the Quins’ half but were less effective at turning ball and territory into points than they should have been.  Quins deserve some credit – they hardly saw any useable ball – but kept their composure and kept the penalty count down.  Cipriani had only one long range shot that was as underpowered as a Prius.  Cips was by some way the winner of the kicking contest, keeping Quins in their 22.  He had a good first half and has the balance and time that makes him international class. 

For all the good defensive hits, Wardy’s darts holding up under pressure and – a real feature of this season – very fast defensive line speed, something had to give.  From a wobbly Care clearance kick, Sale ran it back at us and for once recycled quickly enough to build pressure.  Cipriani then stuck one way up into the firework dotted sky – higher than Sam Burgess’s buy out bill – and Visser was the lucky recipient.  Maybe he lost it in the lights, but his overhead catch was very uncertain (crap, then?) and Dan Braid said thanks very much and drove over.  It went to the TMO for offside from the kick but it rightly stood.  Cipriani knocked the conversion over via the post and on 18 minutes it was 7-0 to Sale.

It didn’t really galvanise Quins into action and we continued to see less of the ball than Cinderella.  Sale had only a five day turn round for this game but Quins were the more sluggish.  Inevitably, my journalistic concentration began to wander and the biggest question vexing me was:  have there ever been that many dodgy haircuts on a rugby pitch at the same time?  It was Barnet hell out there with Marler’s spaghetti western bad guy look getting my Oscar: “Crouch, touch, pause…eat lead Gringo!”. 

Sale dominated first phase ball still but generally went side to side with it – where they did make a break (and Sam James looked the most likely) the Quins cover always outnumbered the Sale support.  We at least remained disciplined in defense but on our first visit to the Sale half we stuffed up our own line out and on the second occasion Minty got pinged for holding on when we had built up a little momentum. 

As we hit the 35 minute mark, we did though start to roll a few mauls well and find a way of disrupting Sale’s scrum.  From a scrum penalty Nev’s touch finder should have been dealt with by Sale’s 11 (Will Addison, according to the programme).  He makes Christian Wade look like Michael Jordan, so vertically challenged is he, but the net result was a Quins line out.  With Robshaw starting to show well both in the line out and the mauls we rumbled it forwards and picked up the penalty.  Nev took his time and made it 3-7 with only two minutes to half time.

This time Quins did up the tempo from the restart.  Dave Ward stripped Sale mid pitch to counter and we rolled another line out up field.  With the clock nearly red, Nev took a long shot but didn’t find the mark.  Half time it was, with people around me rubbing their eyes, yawning and asking: “Did I miss anything, then?”.  Not much.

The first 15 minutes following half time was – for Quins fans – the best period of the game.  It was played at tempo, with quick ball and some direct running asking lots of defensive questions.  Wallace and Brownie combined well to run back some kick tennis and Dan Braid dived over to kill the ruck.  The penalty was fairly straight on and Nev obliged to make it 6-7 after 43 minutes.  Braid went off soon after and Quins began running from all parts.  Visser made good ground on the west stand side having been put in space by that unlikely centre-combo of Matthews and Marler. 

Quins got themselves camped in Sale’s 22 and the pressure began to suck in the cover.  Visser smartly put himself on the west stand touch line and began waving his arms at Nev.  He was waving so much that Heathrow air traffic control was about to clear him for take off when the ball finally emerged from the back of a ruck.  Nev saw what was on and skidded over his kick, which Visser was no doubt relieved to nail.  While the only people in TW11 who had not seen Visser were the Sale three quarters, it was still a well worked and well taken try.  Visser looks a good addition and seems to be able to beat the first defender every time.  Nev made a not-easy kick look easy and we were 13-7 up and good value for it at about 50 mintues gone.

Our response to the restart was good and put the game back in the Sale half.  Even after Danny Care had been stripped of good ball, we pressured Sale into an error and picked up scrum in a promising position.  At this point we swapped a tiring Collier for the Kitchen Sinck and got an immediate reward with a scrum penalty. Despite a mid-run up heckle (and can we take a rusty chain saw to the offender’s nether regions please?) Nev sent it sailing over and 16-7 at 54 minutes put us in the pound seats

Sale responded very well and pressured Sinckler into giving away a scrum penalty.  It looked worth a shot at goal to me with plenty of time on the clock but Sale put it into the corner.  We conceded a penalty in defending the rolling maul and as kicks go it was in “gimme” range.  But Sale popped it back in the corner and gave Quins a get out of jail moment by truck and trailer-ing the resulting maul. 

On 63 minutes Lowe was turned over just in the Sale half and slick hands and a kick into the space left by Quins attack formation led to a furious foot race on the east stand side. Mike Brown made an astonishingly good tackle to take down the Sale speedster {no, I couldn’t tell who he was) with Nev helping out.  The Sale support was then flipped on his back and couldn’t ground it.  Wiggo – who I thought had a good game – ordered the scrum with Diamond and Braid doing lots of scowling on the side lines.  Sale did at least turn the scrum position into points by shipping the ball quickly across the backs.  Sam James – and what a prospect he looks – wrangled his way through a fair bit of cover to hit the line.  There was a magenta tinged howl or two questioning the grounding but Wiggo correctly didn’t trouble the TMO as it was good score and well deserved by James.  Cipriani’s geometry was spot on has he turned it into 16-14 with 66 minutes gone.

Quins response to the restart wasn’t convincing and we entered the “What’s he doing there” phase of the game.  Robshaw did a good impersonation of a full back; Clifford, on for Wallace, did his take on a winger, and most memorably, following a desparately needed turnover of Sale ball in our 22, Charlie Matthews played fly half and boomed out a touch finder.  And yet….we scrambled, we tackled, disrupted and kept Sale out.  Something did in the end give:  Charlie Matthews was, harshly maybe, judged to have hit his opposite number in the line out when challenging for the ball.   It was on the right side of the pitch for the left footed Cipriani and not that far out.  I phoned Ladbrokes and offered them my shirt on Cips nailing it.  The kick looked good but – agonisingly for Sale and rather like the Labour party membership – unexpectedly drifted left at the last minute.  With only 8 minutes left it would have been a tough route back for us.

Maybe in relief Nev blasted the 22 very long into the Sale half.   We picked up possession and rolled a maul like a human steam roller a long way into Sale territory.  Just do this for five minutes and the game was ours.  As it happened Joe Gray got done for sealing off, and Sale relieved the pressure.  Mercifully a scrum just inside the Sale half ate up two minutes of time. Maybe in frustration Tim Wigglesworth reversed the put in for the scrum turning – a collector’s item these days – and Sale had one last roll of the dice for a minute and half.  Again, we dug in, made the tackles and Sale were more lateral than forward.  Sale, apparently didn’t trust themselves enough, went for the drop goal shot a bit earlier than I thought.  Cips was too far out and too hurried and put a shonky seven iron, that didn’t get much above head height, into the in goal area.  Phew, 16-14 it was.

The value of the win for Quins in the short term is in maintaing that vital sporting commodity – momentum. Our defensive display was very good and we again took chances when they appeared so there’s plenty to feel good about still.  In the long term it’s four points banked when the real value may show in the end of season shake out. 

The coaching team made an interesting call in leaving out Jones and Horwill.  They’ve both been good additions to the front five which looks like it’s got a bit more edge to it so far.  Jones may carry a bigger range of timber than Wickes, but when he’s on we mess the oppo scrum about much more than they do ours and seem to be on the right side of the scrum decisions – that’s priceless. I like Horwill – he’s all elbows, knees, adjusting the oppo’s ribs and constantly helping the referee with enquiries.  In his bash hat he’s a dead ringer for Buzz Lightyear, but remember kids: he’s not flying, he’s just being lifted in the line out!  Either way, the result justifies the decision made by the back room boys and we can expect this pair to inflict some “Sacre bleu” on our visitors on Thursday.

Sale should feel that they let this one slip.  Steve Diamond – while he’s sometimes a graduate of the Richard Cockerill charm school – is a very canny operator and gets the best out of the squad.  Sixth and seventh over the last two Premiership seasons, while not spectacular, is good work, given the slide that hit Sale post Philippe StA and the move from Edgely Park His signings of Cipriani, Baird and the Mekon look-alike Peter Stringer are what Harry Redknapp would call “good business”.   I suspect his budget doesn’t quite stretch to the quality he’d like to unlock games like last night’s but not many people will look forward to playing Sale this season and that’s credit to a together looking squad well led by Braid.

 

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Rough on Diamond
Discussion started by ComeAllWithin.co.uk , 09/11/2015 08:05
ComeAllWithin.co.uk
09/11/2015 08:05
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Bedfordshire Boy
09/11/2015 08:50
A good read Gregory, surprised that you found anything to write about after that very poor display.

JJQuin
09/11/2015 09:45
An excellent review - enjoyed it a lot more than the game :-)

Jammy Git
09/11/2015 09:56
Seems fair!

O Fortuna, velut luna statu variabilis,
semper crescis aut decrescis

Quint Eastwood
09/11/2015 14:24
Poor game, very lucky win, what happened to 'the Quins style of play'?

The team will not have the same luck against genuine top 4 teams. Sarries or Exeter would have been far more ruthless.

Cipriani, despite pinning Quins back with an accurate kicking game-plan, showed in the last quarter that his decision making and implementation was not international standard. However, Sale gave away a number of very kickable penalties in the 2nd half for field position that, in the end, could easily have won them the game.

4 points always welcome but Quins will have to play for more than 20 minutes in future games to maintain their current league position.

poorfour
09/11/2015 17:06
Good write up - sets a high bar for those of us to follow...

We've had a tricky first 4 games and we're 3rd in the table without having hit top gear. It's not a dream start - but I'd rather be in that position with a sense we could improve than having played well and lost.

Quins4life
09/11/2015 18:01
Very good write up! good start to the season and we can still improve! Also I have just realised in the three games we have won, we have been outscored in terms of tries. Thank god Evans has started the season so well from the tee!

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