(although it quickly became apparent that this was a deliberate ploy as Tigers had no intension of letting the ball get any wider than 13 – although it was good to see the Hippo back), and the reinstatement of the erratic Frank Murphy at 9. Matters in the pack were not much better with Cozza packing down at 4 as a result of us losing Wentzel, Blaze, Kay and McHamilton to injury or international call ups.

“Whistling” Sean Davey blew the whistle and we were off at 2.59. Early Sale pressure was comfortably subdued and an excellent touch finder from Aaron Mauger provided the line out which Sale clearly barged through giving Goode his first kick at goal. There were groans around the ground as Andy lined up the kick but he showed none of the yips that have been troubling him and after 5 minutes Goode had a 100% kicking record and Tigers were ahead 3-0.

There was plenty of endeavour from both sides but little real penetration and it was the ninth minute before the scorers were troubled again with McAlister slotting over the penalty to take the scores to 3-3.

Some good work in defence by Sam Vesty lead to a Sale line out that was stolen by Tigers to set up an attacking phase which came to an end when Cockbain was penalised for going over the top at a ruck inside the Tigers half, something was obviously said and Mr Davey had no hesitation in marching Sale back 10 yards making the penalty much more kickable. Sadly Goode scuffed the kick and it fell short and wide of the upright, 13 minutes gone, Goode 50% success rate, scores remain 3-3.

Sale were in the mood for a fast running game and quickly counter attached with the excellent Charlie Hodgeson heavily involved in much that was good. Sale continued to press and tapped a quick penalty from half way but handling errors were to let them down. This pressure seemed to spur Tigers who responded in forceful fashion and were duly rewarded with another penalty from 25m out. Goode took the kicking tee and once again put Tigers into the lead. 25 minutes gone, Tigers lead 6-3 and Andy has a 66% success rate.

Shortly afterwards what was always a physical game erupted with Chebal taking Louis Deacon out off the ball and Deacs taking exception. Sean Davey had already awarded a penalty to Sale for blocking, and despite the TJ flagging for foul play, and having a great view of the incident as it was only 5 yards in front of him, the idiosyncratic Mr Davey said he was “quite happy” with the incident and the original penalty stood. Martin Corry was incredulous and asked the ref 3 times if he was going to reverse the decision, but as with the Iron Lady, This Ref was not for turning! Luke McAlister calmly slotted the points and after 28 minutes the scores were level 6-6.

More good work from both sides with a great break by Ollie Smith going un rewarded when Ollie turned inside rather than pinning his ears back and going for the corner, and got hauled down inside the Sale 22. I cant help wondering if we had wingers on the pitch they wouldn’t have had the confidence to attach the line and/or been running better support lines; the same could be said of Sam who has not had much match practice of late and may be a little rusty.

There was more of the same when Frank Murphy broke loose and tried to chip the last man; the ball bobbled and Murphy dropped on it over the line, but Mr Davey adjudged him to have knocked-on.

Almost immediately Sale had a chance of their own as Fernandez-Lobbe failed to gather his kick through and the ball ran dead.

The final act of the half however belonged to Sale with McAlister landing his third perfect kick following a further indiscretion. Half time score Tigers 6 Sale 9

As the Teams came out for the second period we were expecting Tigers to play the territory game that Marcello preaches as they were now playing with the advantage of the strong wind.

The second half started in feisty fashion with good attacking play from Sale and a McAlister kick through needing Goode to show excellent pace and outstrip the attackers to touch the ball against the post and dislodge the padding (the post’s not Andy’s) in the process. The Hippo called for a quick drop-out but Andy’s kick was not accurate enough and the ball dribbled into touch giving Sale a good attacking platform. The line out went well for the visitors who drove forcefully towards Tigers 22. Once again we heard Sean’s Whistle as Tigs were adjudged to have collapsed the Maul but surprisingly Sale shunned the 3 points and opted to kick to the corner.

Sale pounded at Tigers line for a number of phased but good committed defence kept driving them back. Eventually Hipkiss ripped the ball free and earned a penalty in the process. Frank Murphy took a quick tap and play quickly moved beyond half way, but once again Tigers were unable to capitalise due to poor handling.

Further Sale pressure resulted in another penalty shot but this time the otherwise dependable McAlister pushed the ball wide of the posts and after 52 minutes the score remained 6-9.

6 minutes later the roles were reversed with Andy Goode missing a monster kick from his own half. Score remains 6-9, Goode’s success rate 50%

Plenty of grunt and committed defence was the order of the day for the next 15 minutes, but with both Sale and Tigers having clearance kicks charged down in this period it was anything other than boring. Andy even trying one of his ‘trade mark’ dropped goals!

What was worrying was the ease with which the Sale pack shunted tigers backwards at each scrum and Mr Davey penalising Tigers front row for standing up. Matters were improved slightly when Dave Young replaced the tiring Alex Moreno, but this is an area Cockers will no doubt be focussing on ahead of next week.

The first try wasn’t scored until the 71 minute when Leicester had an attaching 5 meter scrum on the left hand side. Despite earlier fault lines, the scrum was more solid and Jordan Crane topped another fine performance in Green by driving through 2 defenders to score. The roar that greeted this score was like a sigh of relief for the 17,498 faithful. Sadly Goode’s radar was again off target despite this being the easiest attempt of the match. 71 minutes played, the score was 11-9, AG success rate 33%.

The game had been too tight throughout for anyone to be confident of Tigers holding out for 9 minutes and with the missed conversion most money was on a late penalty to win the game for Sale.

Sale continued to press and looked dangerous but the Tigers defence was again excellent and once again the ball was recovered and passed to Mauger to clear the line, unfortunately his kick missed touch and found McAlister who danced his way back to within 5 meters of the line. Quick hands released the ball to Chebal who had been well marshalled for most of the game but sadly when it mattered most the Frenchman was strong enough to drive through the covering tackle and score the decisive try in the 79th minute. The conversion was missed but the final score was Tigers 11 Sale 14 and only the second home GP defeat of the season.

Overall I would say then neither side really deserved to lose the game but Sale probably had the edge in attach and the result was fair. I would like to see a TV replay as there were a number of ‘odd’ decisions by Mr Davey, especially the 2 where he overruled his TJ regarding foul play (on Deacon and later a late tackle on Sam Vesty). Tigers’ attacking play was mediocre at best with far too little inventiveness and too many handling errors/knock-ons in the red zone.

Frank Murphy was pacey but his passing was again too poor with passes to boot laces and more often slightly behind the man. Goode also looked sharper with ball in hand but was also too guilty of poor passing and some woeful kicking, a 33% hit rate from the boot is not Premiership standard.

McAlister MOM without a doubt, he certainly atoned for the gifts he presented us with in the EDF game at WR last year. Tiger’s best player for me was a tie between Jordan Crane and Ben Herring.

TIGERS SALE
Sam Vesty 15 Julien Laharrague
Ayoola Erinle 14 Mark Cueto
Dan Hipkiss 13 Chris Bell
Aaron Mauger 12 Luke McAlister
Ollie Smith 11 Oriol Ripol Fortuny
Andy Goode 10 Charlie Hodgson
Frank Murphy 9 Sililo Martens
Marcos Ayerza 1 Eifion Roberts
George Chuter 2 Sebastien Bruno
Alex Moreno 3 Stuart Turner
Martin Corry 4 Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe
Louis Deacon 5 Brent Cockbain
Brett Deacon 6 Sean Cox
Ben Herring 7 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe
Jordan Crane 8 Sebastien Chabal


Benjamin Kayser 16 Neil Briggs
David Young 17 Ben Evans
Greg Gillanders 18 Dean Schofield
Ben Pienaar 19 Chris Jones
Christophe Laussucq 20 Will Cliff
Ian Humphreys 21 Lee Thomas
Johne Murphy 22 Elvis Seveali'i

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