Sale Sharks hang on to edge Northampton Saints in nail-biting win

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Tom O'Flaherty scoring for Sale Sharks against Northampton Saints.

Tom O'Flaherty scoring for Sale Sharks against Northampton Saints.

Sale Sharks held off a late onslaught from Northampton Saints to kick off the Premiership season with a 20-15 triumph at the AJ Bell Stadium on Sunday.

First-half tries from Tom Roebuck, Tom O’Flaherty and Ethan Caine were not added to by Sale in the second period, but they managed to hang on for victory.

Northampton‘s try-scorers were Tommy Freeman and James Ramm, with Fin Smith adding the extras as they came up short despite a late push for the win.

Click here for scorers

Sale, last season’s runners-up, were not at their fluent best, being without many of their World Cup stars, but some stout defending, particularly at the death, helped them prevail.

A depleted Saints, who have not won in the league at Sale since 2017, gave it everything but were unable to even it up late on.

In bright sunshine at the Salford Stadium, it was the Saints who got themselves off to a flying start with an early converted try.

Smart work down the right saw Tom James take a quick tap, with Freeman eventually going over in the corner. Smith was accurate with the conversion.

However, with only five minutes on the clock, the Sharks replied with a converted score of their own.

In the opposite corner, Roebuck was able to dive over, with fly-half Rob du Preez pinpoint with the kick as the score moved to 7-7.

It had been a hugely enterprising start to the game with so many non-regular starters on both sides clearly keen to impress.

Roebuck provided the assist as Sale struck again soon after, with O’Flaherty profiting, though this time the extras were missed.

The theme continued with play switching from end to end, and it was the Saints who then fluffed a relatively easy penalty chance as Smith was uncharacteristically off target from just left of centre.

The Saints kept probing, and Smith kicked an even easier penalty to close the gap to 12-10, but plenty of determined Sharks defending was keeping them out.

Another momentum shift saw the hosts win a penalty in the Saints’ 22, with Du Preez making it 15-10, before a pushover try from Caine eventually sent the Sharks into the interval 20-10 ahead.

A number of handling errors did not help either side’s momentum in the early stages after the restart.

Saints set up a tense finish in the 69th minute when a rare swift break down the right culminated with Alex Coles feeding Ramm, and he was able to charge to the line in the corner for an unconverted try.

The visitors desperately tried to secure what would have been a late equalising try and maybe a winning conversion, but they were thwarted by the Sharks’ gutsy defending.

The teams

Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Sam James, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Tom O’Flaherty, 10 Rob du Preez (c), 9 Raffi Quirke, 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Sam Dugdale, 6 Jean-Luc du Preez, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 3 Nick Schonert, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Si McIntyre
Replacements: 16 Ethan Caine, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 James Harper, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Josh Beaumont, 21 Gus Warr, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Arron Reed

Northampton Saints: 15 George Hendy, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Fraser Dingwall (c), 12 Rory Hutchinson, 11 James Ramm, 10 Fin Smith, 9 Tom James, 8 Sam Graham, 7 Tom Pearson, 6 Angus Scott-Young, 5 Alex Coles, 4 Alex Moon, 3 Trevor Davison, 2 Curtis Langdon, 1 Ethan Waller
Replacements: 16 Robbie Smith, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Tom Lockett, 20 Chunya Munga, 21 Archie McParland, 22 James Grayson, 23 Tom Seabrook

Referee: Adam Leal
Assistant Referees: Neil Chivers, Ryan Collier
TMO: Andrew Jackson

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