By TheSaracens.com
October 4 2026

well it's 2 for 1 today owing to a mix-up among the eds. Here is a 2nd version of the match. Unfortunately the result is the same. You know how it feels when things aren’t great and you have this lovely dream. Then you wake and for a few precious seconds its like the dream is real. Then reality returns with a band. So last week was a bit like that. After the dreariness of much of last season came the win against Leicester but today the dream was just that, a dream, and we return to grim reality.

Let’s look at the positives: well it was a lovely warm sunny day and the retro kit looked good. OK pretty short list.

Much of the rest was negative starting with the announcer pointing out that it should be a good afternoon because Sale’s record at the StoneX is pretty bad. This was followed by howling banshees which greeted the arrival of the teams. Not a good addition methinks.

Within 5 minutes the rot had started. As so often happens it was a poor Sarries lineout which gave Sale both field position and possession and inevitably they scored from a maul through Jibulu. Ford converted and Sale took a lead they never relinquished.

Sale were being generous with penalties but Sarries were unable to take any advantage. On 11 minutes we had the first of many interventions from the TMO, this time for a tackle by Loz on Barbeary which was deemed high and Loz went to put his feet up for 10 minutes.

After 18 minutes the TMO intervened again. This time Vermulen was in trouble with what looked like a cynical tackle. After some debate he was shown a 20 minute red card (there was probably an argument for a permanent red but this bunch of officials weren’t ever giving that. So for a couple of minutes Sale were down to13 but you would never have known.

It could, maybe should have been even worse when Courtney Lawes appeared to have deliberately knocked the ball on close to his line. The referee immediately gave a yellow card only for the TMO to intervene yet again. We thought he was looking at a penalty try but no, between them the officials decided it was an attempted charge down so no yellow card. The penalty went in the corner and finally it seemed Sarries had scored through Tompkins. Burke converted and we were already to go again when the wretched TMO butted in again. He had noticed obstruction in the line out apparently (really?) so the try was chalked off, Sale were back to 14 and the TMO was becoming a flippin’ nuisance.

Barbeary disappeared for an HIA. Sale continued to infringe but Sarries seemed completely unable to take advantage of either the penalties or the extra man. Once they did get an attacking lineout in the Sale 22 the throw wasn’t straight.

Sale had far more of the ball than they should have been allowed and almost scored again but for some good goal line defence. More wasted possession when one penalty after another was tapped without anyone seemingly having a clue what to do with it. It was just too easy for Sale to run the clock down. When Sarries had the ball they were too slow, too narrow and generally out of ideas. Even Williams was guilty of joining the general malaise – he managed to break clear and had Segun free outside of him but the pass went back into the congestion down the middle.

Finally Sale made one error too many when a short throw in the Sarries 22 was too short. Sarries scrummed well and finally got the ball over the line through Mawi. Burke missed the kick but at least we were up and running. Burke wasn’t having his best day when a pass to Segun went straight into touch. 20 replaced Vermulen and Sale had survived almost half an hour with 13 or 14 players and conceding just 5 points. It didn’t bode well for 15 v 15.

So a pretty dire first half which thanks to frequent TMO interventions and blatant delaying tactics by Sale lasted an hour. An hour of my life I won’t get back.

And so on to Part 2. Our wine consultant rang a few changes with O’Driscoll and Clarey replacing Mawi and Street, Earl replacing Barbeary and a debut for George Martin replacing Tizard. All of which led to a 2^nd try for Sale when O’Flaherty, who had spent the first half making a mockery of the offside rule, ran pretty much the length of the pitch to score. Ford converted and Sale had a comfortable 5-14 lead. It seemed to provoke some response from Sarries with Sione Va’enuku scoring in the corner. Burke again missed the kick but the score was more respectable.

Thereafter neither side managed much in the way of exciting rugby with more errors and more missed lineouts. Michelow replaced Gonzalez and Charlie replaced Williams, who sadly looked half the player he was last week. Daly picked up a knock to be replaced by Malins. Dan was down at the far end as Sale managed a 3^rd try through Bamber, this time converted by Loz. Jack Bracken seemed to pull up rather than chase him down but surprisingly he stayed on the field although by now his left knee was heavily strapped. Dan hobbled off – just as well it was a hooker who was injured as the only man left on the bench was Eoghan Clarke!

As we entered the last 10 minutes there was some hope when Jack Bracken made a super break and off loaded to his brother for the score. He also had the presence of mind to make the kick easy for Burke and get the whole 7 but at 17-21 another try was still required. So why not once, but twice in the final 2 minutes did Charlie Bracken box kick the ball. Sarries managed to get it back after the first one but then Charlie did exactly the same again and this time the Sale forwards managed to hang on to the ball for the required 70 seconds until the clock was dead.

So not a happy afternoon. How can a team which last week looked full of energy and ideas, a team which believed they could hang on to a 2 point lead (and did) become such a sluggish, clueless bunch of chumps. The game lasted almost 2 hours and seemed largely to be refereed by the TMO. Sale’s timewasting was shameless but they were allowed to get away with it! Perhaps if I’d fallen asleep I could have got back into my dream. Meantime our sommelier will need to dig deep into his cellar if he is to come up with something good enough to smooth Bristol’s palette next weekend. Bit of vintage champagne could go down nicely!

SARACENS

Daly (Malins), J Bracken, Tompkins, Va’enuku, Segun, Burke, Williams (C Bracken); Mawi O’Driscoll), Dan (Clarke), Street (Clarey), Itoje, Tizard (Martin), Isiekwe, Gonzalez (Michelow), Barbeary (Earl)

SALE SHARKS

Carpenter, O’Flaherty, Marchant, Lozowski, Reed (Loganimasi), Ford, Warr; Smith (McIntyre), Jibulu (Caine), Opoku-Fordjour (Francis), Van Rhyn, Bamber, Lawes (Tshiunza), Curry, Vermeulen (Canakaivata)

Scorers:

Saracens (17) Tries: Mawi, Va’enuku, C Bracken; Conv: Burke

Sale Sharks (21): Tries: Jibulu, O’Flaherty, Bamber; Conv: Ford (2), Lozowski

Referee: Joe James