By Whaley Shark
January 25 2014

If it’s Saturday (or indeed any other day of the week), we must be playing Worcester again, or so it seems this season......

 

 

 

This time, we are getting to see some of the Sale players who’ve had limited exposure so far this season, which adds a bit of interest, but the strong breeze and heavy squalls look likely to give everyone plenty exposure this afternoon, especially during the first half which was pretty much a stalemate. We sneaked an early 3-0 lead through a Joe Ford penalty, and that was that for first half scoring. Other than a bit of pressure in the Worcester 22 at the end of the half, almost all of the game was played in the middle third of the field, with lots of kicking by both sides, presumably in an attempt to exploit the gusting, swirling wind.

I’ve no idea whether it was down to Dimes’s half time pep talk or was always intended as we played into the wind, but we seemed more inclined to keep the ball in hand in the second half. Not that it had much effect in the first ten minutes of the half, with the two sides swapping penalties. Eventually, we put up a bomb, recovered possession and drove on to the Worcester 22. A grubber behind the first line of defence put Worcester under pressure and they had no choice but to give us a lineout ten metres from their line. They closed the gap and, from the free kick, our forwards recycled the all a few times and eventually put captain Mark Easter over by the posts just before the hour mark.

Worcester narrowed the gap with a penalty a few minutes later, but then we really seemed to gain the upper hand, perhaps reflecting a bunch of Sale substitutions in the pack. We won a few turnovers, put Worcester kickers under pressure, leading to charge-downs and slices, and giving left wing Charlie Ingall a good run down the touchline which was only stopped by a last ditch tackle into touch.

The Worcester errors continued in our next attack, with Warriors marking a chip into their 22, but failing to clear into touch. We ran it back and some slick handling made just enough room for Charlie Ingall to cross in the corner. Joe Ford nailed a really difficult kick from the touchline to make the score 20-6.

The game degenerated a bit in the last few minutes as both teams started to take risks. Worcester were inches from pulling off an interception, and we tried a few risky things. Worcester camped in our 22 for a few minutes but were penalised, and the game petered out in midfield trench warfare.

I guess most of my comments just reflect the relative inexperience of the team we put out. The lineout struggled, the timing was perhaps occasionally a bit out in the backs, and there were perhaps a couple of examples of white line fever. Nevertheless, a win’s a win and, in the end, as we brought on more established players, it was a fairly comfortable win at that. My Man of the Match- I think Mike Haley for a solid performance at fullback and some nice attacking interventions. Honourable mention for Villami Fihaki who did a lot of tidying up- I hope the last minute injury wasn’t too serious.