Late, Late Show Denies Sarries
It's a shark's fin, innit
By Rupes
September 15 2008
A Charlie Hodgson dropped goal after 91 minutes for Sale condemned Saracens to their second defeat of the season, an entertaining game at Edgeley Park yielding only a losing bonus point for the Men in Red. AKA "How to turn 4 points into 2 points, into 1 point".
Annual trips to Edgeley Park always throw up some form of talking point (the journey, the snow, the driving rain, The Pineapple, Del's debut at full back, Matt Cairns' win against the head) and this year was no exception. Saracens managed to turn 4 points into 2, into 1 and left the north-west with a feeling of "what could have been, if only....", the worst feeling you can have in sport.
From the first kick-off to the last whistle, both teams tried to play attacking rugby - not all of it came off, but the intent was there and this meant an entertaining game was on offer. Sarries started by far the better and had moved into a 9-0 lead courtesy of 3 Glen Jackson penalties by the half hour mark. Matias Arguero and Andy Saull were to the fore, Sale hadn't seen the ball and things were looking good. Neil de Kock had been removed from the fray however, having hit his head on Ratuvou's knee whilst trying to make a tackle.
And from having complete control in all elements of the game, the pendulum suddenly swung back towards Sale. An initial penalty from Charlie Hodgson made it 3-9, then a seering break from Luke McAllister (sheer class, most of the other Sale backs couldn't keep up) created the position for another penalty, 6-9. Only Hodgson's wild shank of yet another penalty right on the half time whistle left Sarries in the lead.
Never mind, 6-9 became 9-9 within a minute of the second half starting (we won't mention the dropped restart which gave Sale the position for the penalty). And then it was 12-9, four minutes of the second half gone, Glen Jackson kicked the restart out on the full and it looked as if the world could implode.
Richard Haughton, the class Saracen of the evening, then made yet another of his mazy runs which began by straightening the line and going through a gap (other backs please note, STRAIGHTENING the line, not crabbing it sideways) which created another attacking platform. From that, Andy Saull crashed over only to see Rob Debney disallow the try for an alleged knock-on. The lack of protests from the players suggested that Mr Debney probably got it right. As it was, Glen Jackson made it 12-12 with 25 minutes to go and it was game on again. Subs started to come on from both sides, perhaps it was no surprise that the Sale eight were pushed off their put-in twice once Cobus had arrived, the supremacy up front was there for all to see.
But it counts for nothing if you don't win games. Another penalty for Sale 15-12, another penalty for Sarries, 15-15, 13 minutes to go (so we thought). As time ticked on, the two 10's embarked on a "Who Cannot Kick a Drop Goal?" competition, with Hodgson missing from about 10m in front of the posts (pushed wide when it was easier to kick it), Glen managing to put a grubber kick through to the left of the posts with his left-footed, off balance effort.
On 84 minutes, another Jackson penalty finished short and wide - no surprise, it was well out of his range. So it's a draw and 2 points each, surely? No, on we went. A concerted period of Sale pressure (during which they butchered at least 3 overlaps) ended with a Sarries scrum 10m from their own line. Mosese to Glen, kick to touch, whistle game over, 2 points, easy. Instead, we saw Mosese to Glen, kick to Rory Lamont, three phases, Hodgson drop goal, full time whistle, 1 point over the hill and far away, 18-15 and a burgled Sale win.
Finally, a mention for the Sale programme, already the "Winner of the 2008/09 Season Award for Best Typo" - ladies and gentleman, sitting on the bench at number 21 for Saracens was Gordon Roses. Now known as "Ringa". You had to laugh, it was that sort of night.
A lack of mental control cost us that game. Whenever we get into the red zone, we seem ponderous; almost always, the ball is slowed to get the forwards into position, to crash forward, repeat until turned over. At no time do we really look like spinning the ball fast and wide and keeping the pace on it. We all know that pace is hard to defend against and will eventually open space; the skill is in continuing to make the right decisions so that the space comes.
For some reason, we seem not to do that - we messed up a scoring chance first half from a 5m scrum, then phases, for example.
And then, the most criminal non-thought of all, was for Glen's drop goal attempt. Having been in the pocket for a phase which didn't work, Glen then didn't drop back for the next phase. Mosese gave him the ball, the other players seemed to be expecting the drop, he had no-one to pass to so had to go for a rushed, off balance effort off his wrong foot. No blame to a specific player, just a lack of thought from all.
And then, all we had to do was to kick it out and take a 2 point draw. It beggared belief that we didn't - and did we pay for it. Psychologically, as much as anything else.
We are now 0-2 having played some superb stuff on Friday. We didn't deserve to lose, but some of the decision-making meant that we did. Having said all of that, we'll win games this season playing far worse than that.
Final word : Luke McAllister was absolutely superb for Sale, out of the very top drawer. Some of his lines were wonderful, his general awareness and play a class apart. If the rest of the Sale backs can learn to keep up with him and they can secure enough ball, they will be a very good unit indeed. We did brilliantly to more than match them, just a shame we came up slightly short. Teams with a winning mentality (which we don't have) don't let that sort of chance slip away. Let's hope we've learnt something.
Some stats on the evening:
Sarries fans - estd. 14
Mexican Waves - 1 (Bboonie and I)
Adverts for Care in the Community - at least 2
Finally, some sad news : The Pineapple is closed
.Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:09:15:09:59:36 by Rupes.
McAlister is quality, no doubt. Until about half an hour in when Sale realised that they could actually run the ball, they were very much second best. Thereafter the game ebbed and flowed and despite there being no tries, I thought it a great game to watch.
Highlight of the night for me was the Bruno v Ongaro show. Fab really got stuck into him throughout. Best game I have seen from Fab since he joined us.
Lineouts superb, two hiccups apart, and after talking up the Sale front row before the game, Matias, Fab and Cencus were the better unit, taking two against the head.
Of course, the main concerns are restarts and the concession of points thereafter.
We have trouble dealing with kicks that are between the forwards and the backs that land around the 22. More often than not a back-pedalling player is left to take the ball, often knocking it on, instead of the player coming forward.
Sometimes even if the player moving forward is going for the ball, he's often too deep to take it comfortably, often scrambling to make the catch and making the knock-on more likely.
So the alignment when receiving the ball from the kick-off needs looking at, IMO, along with a reminder that it should be the player coming onto the ball that gets first refusal at attempting to catch it, rater than a retreating, often off-balance team mate. On the flip side, Chris Jack pinched a coulpe of Sale's from them.
I've now seen all but two of the GP teams play for at least 80 minutes (the exceptions being Newcastle and Bristol) and if early form is any indication of what might happen, I think Sarries will be in the top half, providing they can turn these narrow defeats into wins.
My glass is half full to overflowing.....
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:09:15:11:25:58 by the 'ead 'itter.