I was going to write this match report on Friday night after I got home from a frighteningly chilly Stockport, but I was hopping mad. 

It all started so well. The first five minutes of the game Leeds looked bright and breezy, the forwards were all over the park and the backs had some zip. They camped on the Sale try line until a penalty was forced. “Take the three” was my summation, and young Mr. Bedford appeared to agree as he tossed the ball to Alberto. About ten metres in from the line, and around the twenty-two. Not an easy kick, but then again not exactly the most difficult the argentine fly-half has ever attempted. So imagine the surprise of the 8,000 or so people in the crowd when the kick not only missed, but actually dropped short by some five or six metres! 

With hindsight, this signalled the end of any good attacking play from the Leeds boys. A tight five that had been dominant in the reverse fixture – even when Andrew Sheridan arrived as impact with twenty minutes to go – was absolutely monstered in every facet of the game. Several scrums were shoved back and on more than one occasion the ball was taken against the head and turned over to Sale.  

Charlie Hodgson was in great kicking form and Sale were 6-0 up in the blinking of an eye – Sale eschewing several potential try-scoring opportunities to go for the three points. One of these opportunities deep into Carnegie territory resulted in Joe Bedford being carted off to the local hospital; word has it he is OK but he took no further part in the game and the sight of him being stretchered off in a neck brace was something no rugby fan likes to see.   

To rub salt into the wound, the delay followed a Leeds infringement and Hodgson put over another to get it to 9-0. Leeds kicked off, failed to get close and Sale were able to moved to ball around which eventually resulted in Luke McAllister going over in the corner. Hodgson did the job again and the score was 16-0. 

By this time it was obvious that even the most ardently optimistic among us were not going to see a Leeds win, and we held on to the slight hope of at least something out of the game. Not getting “nilled” would be a start. With the rarest of forays into Sharks territory, Leeds kicked to touch and received the options after a crooked throw. Such was Sale’s dominance in the pack that we took the option of the re-throw – almost unheard of at this level – but the attack ultimately came to nothing with the half-time score remaining at 16-0. 

In the second half, the results were not much better. Alberto was able to ensure the first “let’s not get nilled” wish came true after slotting over a penalty, but because the pack were under so much pressure, the back line were forced to defend very narrow, which opened up the outside centre and wing channels. Fortunately for Leeds, the outside centre and wingers for Sale were a bit “up themselves” and time after time four-on-one overlaps were eschewed for personal glory. Thanks to the superb defensive efforts of the back line – most notably and obviously Lee Blackett – these efforts usually came to nothing. 

However penalties were being conceded, and Hodgson was putting them over like he could do the job in his sleep. A total of nineteen points came his way; the last two of these were as a result of converting Chris Bell’s try against his old club close to the end of the game. The match ended 29-3, with Sale fans rightly annoyed that they didn’t come away with the bonus point win.  

Ahead of the game, we thought that the match would be tough, but if we play to our potential and Sale were hesitant and not on-the-ball, we could sneak a win. Sale kept to their side of the bargain, with some appalling decision making in the backs and some equally terrible handling, at one stage knocking on four times in one passage of play! Leeds however were worse. The dominance in the pack so taken for granted over recent games had evaporated, and the backs had no ball to work with. The conditions clearly played a part, but every part of the game plan came unstuck and there was no way to secure quality possession. Leeds didn’t deserve anything from the night. 

As I said at the start though, we shouldn’t write articles such as this in an angry state of mind, and I am now much calmer about the whole thing. We have never beaten Sale in all our previous meetings, and to do it on a cold Friday night after a two-week layoff was perhaps asking too much. I went to the game in hope rather than expectation, given our recent “near miss” form, and would have been mightily pleased with a bonus point. The fact that the overall performance was so poor was what made it so much harder to bear.  

However, as many posters on the message board have already said, at least there isn’t a long layoff before they can right these wrongs, and a good showing in the next match versus Bath will go a long way to alleviate the pain of this performance. I’ll be there to shout, as always.

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