Sale v Toulon: Five takeaways as England’s ‘piano pushers’ shine in ‘turgid arm wrestle’ while Sharks make ‘hard work’ of last 16 qualification

James While
Sale Sharks prop Bevan Rodd and an insert of Tom O'Flaherty.

Following Sale Sharks’ 33-7 Investec Champions Cup victory over RC Toulon, here’s our five takeaways from the game.

The top line

Sale Sharks secured a place in the Round of 16 in the Investec Champions Cup as they came out on top of a turgid arm wrestle at the Salford Community Stadium, seeing off leaders Toulon to leapfrog Racing 92 and Harlequins and grab third place in Pool Four.

The Sale tries came courtesy of Tom Roebuck (2), Player of the Match Ben Curry, Bevan Rodd and one of the unsung heroes of English Rugby, Tom O’Flaherty as the 7,656 fans that braved the elements on a bitter January night cheered their players home.

It was one of the scrappiest fixtures of Round Four; error-strewn, stodgy and lacking any form of quality in continuity, Toulon looked as if they couldn’t wait to get on their charter flight to return to the relative warmth of the French Riviera, whilst Sale did everything they could to surrender the vast tranches of possession they enjoyed.

Toulon came with a loaded bench and when the likes of Baptiste Serin, Dave Ribbans and others trotted on, they managed to get on the scoreboard but it was a particularly disappointing performance from a team flying high in both the Champions Cup and the Top 14.

Sharks inefficiency

For a side that prides themselves on detail in everything they do, Sale’s inefficiency in so many areas will frustrate the heck out of their coaching team and in particular the forthright and always honest Alex Sanderson.

Outside of the scrum, which was Sale’s foundation for everything, the unforced errors bordered on comedic; dropped final passes with the line beckoning blighted the hosts as Luke Cowan-Dickie, Dan du Preez and his brother Rob all made errors under pressure. The Sale kicking game fared no better; three missed touch-finders underlined the theme of inaccuracy, whilst in the lineout the Sergio Parisse-engineered Toulon machine gave Sale nothing and helped themselves to plenty as they stole four and repelled every effort that Sale made to rumble their driving maul over.

However, it was width and footballing skills that gave Sale their scores – Roebuck getting on the end of some lovely passing work by Rob du Preez and George Ford in midfield to crash over for the opener. Toulon spent the day visiting Old Trafford yesterday ahead of the fixture and they couldn’t have been failed to be impressed with Ben Curry’s footballing skills as the openside grubbered and regathered for a brilliant solo score. Not to be outdone, the other Curry repeated the footwork right at the end as he set up Roebuck for his second.

Sale made this match hard work – had they hit anything like their usual efficiency they would have been out of sight, but largely they were victims of their own inaccuracies and they’ll rue some of their handling and execution. It was fitting that Sale’s best performer Rodd crashed over for their third as the prop laid down a real marker for Test selection in this season’s Six Nations, whilst O’Flaherty ensured that Sale will travel to Toulouse to face the six-time champions in the Round of 16.

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Game in numbers

Sale’s first-half possession numbers were almost as breathtaking as their inability to profit from them. The first 40 saw them with 71% possession and 74% territory, yet only achieve seven points for their dominance.

But as they clawed their way to the win, their running stats showed just how committed they were to playing wider to get around the physicality of the Toulon defence. A whopping 523m with ball in hand played a paltry 268m from Toulon, underlining what good value the hosts were for their win.

In the set-piece, Sale took Toulon apart, the scrum yielding four penalties as the young England props exerted some real heft, and even when Toulon stayed legal, the solidity of the platform was a key foundation for Sale to launch their rumbling forwards.

The last statistic is one that Sale won’t want reminded of is one of their talisman, Rob du Preez, making his 150th start and 66th consecutive appearance for the club managed to get a yellow card right at the end of the match. Du Preez is the heartbeat of the Sale team and his only goal today was qualification, so despite the card, the South African will consider his 150th as an absolute case of ‘job done’.

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Test watch

This was a day for the piano pushers of rugby – on the simple premise that the piano players were likely to endure third-degree frostbite had they dare try to tap out a tune of any duration. And, whilst the wide men froze on the touchlines, the men in the middle of the scrum impressed greatly and none more so than Sale’s all-England front row of Rodd, Cowan-Dickie and Asher Opoku-Fordjour.

As mentioned,  Rodd was simply brilliant – melting backs with some real abrasion in defence, one hit leaving Dan Biggar looking around the turf for the remains of his ribcage, distributing like a three-quarter and showing his newly found resilience in the scrum where he and his cohorts nailed five scrum penalties as they got the better of the Toulon tight five.

Alongside him, Opoku-Fordjour had another impressive outing – smashing some big carries and demonstrating some real power in the loose. England need to bring on a new generation of props and both Rodd and Opoku-Fordjour are right at the heart of that tight renaissance that the national side so dearly crave.

Elsewhere, Raffi Quirke’s speed of pass and depth of kick reminded us all of his immense quality; his omission from the England side is perplexing but can be rationalised around his injury record and the fact he’s in dire need of an extended run of matches – but there’s little doubt that, with the exception of Alex Mitchell, there’s no finer nine in available to Steve Borthwick than Quirke.

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