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Worcester Warriors 31 Sale Sharks 23


By snaderson
February 23 2016

After recent wins against teams near the top of the table, it was time to visit the other half. Worcester struggling on the back of too many successive defeats, Sale riding high on an unbeaten run this year. The stage was set. Snaderson was there...

No one of a Sale persuasion should have been arrogant enough to imagine that this was a game we would definitely win. Our recent history against Worcester has been good, especially the 2013 – 2014 season where we played them five times and won the lot, but further back our record at Sixways hasn’t always been too special. Nevertheless, there was an air of expectation, given the winning streak we were on, and a lot of hopeful fans had made the journey down the motorway to spend a day or a weekend in the Midlands. The size of the travelling contingent said something about the level of that expectation.

I was one of the weekenders and, after an enjoyable night around the hostelries of the town, we were all meeting up in the Cricketers, along with a number of tame Warriors for a bit of a catching up and a bit of banter. We left there for a short walk to the bus station where a shuttle bus took us up to the ground. The Fun-bus crowd had already arrived and we bolstered their numbers milling around the concourse. First port of call was the beer tent, having been tipped off by the locals that it was the only place with real ale. A long queue moved quickly thanks to the system that separates ordering, pouring and serving. Next it was food time. There was a dazzling array of options – pie, chilli, fancy chicken, three types of curry – but I couldn’t resist the faggots and peas. Your fiver got you a huge portion of what you fancied. Food scoffed, a bit more beer and a bit more banter – though it was our lot who serenaded me in my fluro top with ‘He glows in the dark’ – then it was off to take our seats.

A good weekend was about to take a temporary turn for the worse. I don’t know who the blokes in the bright shirts on the field were, but it didn’t seem to be the Sale team we had been watching recently. Worcester quickly found their way through and round the defence, benefiting nicely from playing the ball wide – though skinning Eifion on the outside isn’t a massive achievement for a fit flanker. Our handling also deserted us with the ball flopping all over the place. Line speed in defence meant that when Worcester chucked poor passes around they had plenty of time to recover. Even the rolling maul was performing badly, perhaps because Worcester had done their research well and disrupted it before it could get going (Dimes saw it differently and more darkly). The first half was almost over and we were 18 – 3 down by the time a good, long-tailed maul was formed from a lineout and it marched over the line at a canter for a David Seymour try. To add to a previous missed penalty, Cips missed the conversion. There may have been a problem with the tricky wind blowing and swirling around – the narrow posts were waving about like reeds in a hurricane. Cips kicked one penalty to touch without much distance, thought better of it next time and kicked it too long and kept it in field. Mike Haley sent one ball up and, when it was returned, decided the best option was to shoulder-barge the kicker to the ground. He got a yellow card for his troubles.

The second half was a marginal improvement with Tommy Taylor being driven over early for a try. We perhaps thought this smacked of temerity and let them have a try back almost immediately to apologise. The handling had improved and there were lots of holes out wide when Cips thought he could get over, only to be held short. Quick recycling got the ball to Haley who muscled his way over. It took until almost the last minute for anyone to add further to the score. It was Haley again, this time picking up a brilliant offload off the floor from Mark Jennings, to give us the benefit of a try-scoring bonus point. Cips’s effort was wide again, meaning that was the only bonus point we took.

There’s been a lot of talk about referees and Greg Garner’s inventive interpretation of the laws in particular, but I subscribe to the view that that’s a cop-out. If you’re under pressure, that’s when the dodgy 50-50s matter, but if you’re on top, things tend to go your way, as they started to later in the second half. We were poor in most departments – Paul Deacon’s and Mike Forshaw’s stony faces after the game spoke of where things had gone wrong – with a few bright points here and there, like Tommy Taylor’s energy, Bryn Evans’s work in the lineout and Josh Beaumont’s seeming to be the only one who actually cared. Unfortunately his commitment may have cost him dearly as he left the field in agony from a suspected dislocated shoulder. His arm was in a sling after the game and his only evasive comment, on being asked how he was, was, ‘We’ll wait and see.’ The way the team had played made me wonder whether our winning streak had actually flattered to deceive. Despite the good things we’re doing, are we still that vulnerable? How we come back next week may answer that question.

The Sale fans had been in good voice throughout, even if we had to end the game singing ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.’ Most of the players trudged off out of sight at full time except for Johnny Leota – a travelling reserve – and Sam James, who came over to shake everyone’s hand and thank them for making the effort. Later, we caught up with Sammy T, on the occasion of his 100th appearance for the Sharks, and he posed for photos. We were tipped off by our Warrior friends – every one of whom seemed to be friendly and welcoming – that we could go up to the posh suite upstairs in the stand, so we did. On the way up the stairs we passed some of the Sale support staff who, in an emblematic act, fumbled a stack of takeaway containers and dropped one on the floor. Skills coach?

In the bar we met up with our Worcester friends, saw some of their players and I ran into Dean Ryan. He was a bit cagey at first, perhaps expecting me to go on about referees, but was happy to chat. I say happy, though he didn’t appear to be terribly pleased about the result. ‘Sometimes it’s not about performances, it’s about getting the win.’ A hard man to please.

With the 80 minute horror show behind us, we could go on to enjoy another excellent night in the pubs of Worcester. Delicious pies in the King Charles, random women shouting insults into their phones in the Eagle Vaults, more beer and laughs in the Plough. It’s a great town for a weekend of rugby, even if the rugby wasn’t to our taste.

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