Planet Rugby

Tigers hammer struggling Sale

02nd March 2013 16:40

Sale's survival hopes received a sizeable backward shunt after they were on the end of a 48-10 defeat at the hands of Leicester on Saturday.

The Tigers dominated the first-half and were 27-3 up by the interval as they were awarded a penalty try and Ed Slater touched down twice.

Nick Macleod's penalty was Sale's sole response before the break, but it was once again all one-way in the second period.

Matt Smith (twice) and Mathew Tait sealed the win with well-constructed tries, although Andy Powell scored a late consolation for the Sharks.

Despite going into this game on a two-match losing run in the Premiership, Leicester got off to the perfect start when Tom Croft caught Ford's kick-off.

Sale were then penalised at the breakdown and the hosts' stand-off did the rest from the tee. They continued to control proceedings with Croft to the fore.

However, the Tigers missed two chances to go over when the back-rower's forward pass ended a promising move and Logovi'i Mulipola knocked on close to the line.

But it wasn't long before the Tigers were rewarded for their dominance when Slater charged over. Although Macleod reduced the deficit to 10-3, Ford immediately regained that 10-point advantage with a penalty of his own.

A penalty try was then awarded to the home side when Tom Brady illegally prevented Adam Thompstone from touching down.

And a comfortable first half was completed as Slater showed impressive pace to scamper across the whitewash from long range.

Smith went over twice in quick succession after the break as the Tigers effectively sealed the victory after 53 minutes.

Although the Sharks tried to get a consolation score and went close a couple of times, Tait wrapped up an impressive performance.

Powell did go over for Sale but they had been comprehensively outplayed.

The scorers:

For Leicester:
Tries: Slater 2, Penalty, Smith 2, Tait
Con: Ford 6
Pen: Ford 2

For Sale:
Try: Powell
Con: Cipriani
Pen: Macleod

Leicester Tigers: 15 Mathew Tait, 14 Niall Morris, 13 Matt Smith, 12 Dan Bowden, 11 Adam Thompstone, 10 George Ford, 9 Sam Harrison, 8 Thomas Waldrom, 7 Julian Salvi, 6 Tom Croft (c), 5 Graham Kitchener, 4 Ed Slater, 3 Logovi'i Mulipola, 2 Rob Hawkins, 1 Marcos Ayerza.
Replacements: 16 George Chuter, 17 Kieran Brookes, 18 Fraser Balmain, 19 Brett Deacon, 20 Jordan Crane, 21 Micky Young, 22 Matt Cornwell, 23 Scott Hamilton.

Sale Sharks: 15 Cameron Shepherd, 14 Tom Brady, 13 Jonny Leota, 12 Sammy Tuitupou, 11 Will Addison, 10 Nick Maclod, 9 Cillian Willis, 8 Richie Vernon, 7 David Seymour (c), 6 Dan Braid, 5 Fraser McKenzie, 4 James Gaskell, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Marc Jones, 1 Ross Harrison.
Replacements: 16 Tommy Taylor, 17 Al Dickinson, 18 Tony Buckley, 19 Richie Gray, 20 Andy Powell, 21 Nathan Fowles, 22 Danny Cipriani, 23 Jordan Davies.

Referee: Wayne Barnes
Assistant referees: Peter Huckle, Gordon Goodliffe
Television match official: Mike Hamlin

Comments

kybone says...

lawynd- Well not really when their two main rivals suffered similarly heavy defeats. As i said, its basically as you were after this weekends games. This defeat would only have been a blow if either of Irish or Welsh had done something significantly better. If Sale had done much better, picked up a losing BP for example, it would actually have been a very good weekend for them considering that they were playing a game that they would probably have written off as one which they weren't likely to get anything from.

Posted 21:23 04th March 2013

lawynd says...

That and they've suffered a massive points loss, kybone. That's going to be important.

Posted 10:51 03rd March 2013

kybone says...

I don't believe that Sale's survival hopes suffered a backward shunt at all. This is not a game that they would have pinpointed as winable. London Irish also lost yesterday, and im sure that London Welsh will lose against Sarries today. So it'll be as you were after this weekends fixtures are completed. So the only real downside for Sale is that they'll be a game closer to the end of the season.

Posted 09:43 03rd March 2013

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