 | Sale: (17) 34
Tries: Mayor, Lobbe, Bruno
Cons: Hodgson 2
Pens: Hodgson 5 Northampton: (9) 14
Tries: Myring
Pens: Reihana 3 |
League leaders Sale had too much class for Northampton at a packed Edgeley Park on Monday. Tries from Chris Mayor, Ignacio Fernandez Lobbe and Sebastien Bruno helped them to a comfortable victory.
England fly-half Charlie Hodgson capped a fine all-round performance with 19 points from the boot.
Struggling Northampton scored a try through Luke Myring but were out-muscled up front and out-thought behind the scrum.
Sale, with powerful England prop Andrew Sheridan well to the fore, started brightly and by the 15-minute mark had a 14-0 lead.
Hodgson landed three penalties and also supplied the pin-point cross-field kick which enabled Mayor to score in the corner.
As the rain started to fall Sale's control of the game lessened and Bruce Reihana kicked three penalties for Northampton to get the visitors on the board.
With Hodgson having landed a fourth penalty for Sale, the hosts led 17-9 at the break.
After Sale's quick start Saints would have been happy to have turned round only eight points down but they lost Damien Browne to the sin bin early in the second half.
By that point Sale were back to 15 men after an earlier sin-binning of Robert Todd and they scored their second try when Fernandez Lobbe went over from a yard.
Just before the hour mark Myring crossed for Northampton after a subtle pass from replacement hooker Dylan Hartley had sparked a powerful Saints attack.
But Hodgson added another penalty and converted Bruno's close-range try as Sale stretched away from a willing but limited Saints side.
Sale boss Philippe Saint-Andre:
"I'm very pleased we won and we won easily but we expected to get a bonus point. It didn't happen so we must improve, be patient and keep the ball more. We can be better by 30-40%. "Northampton's rush defence worked well. The plan was to create space in midfield and get the ball out with Charlie Hodgson putting guys into gaps, but we kept dropping the ball."
Northampton boss Budge Pountney:
"We had to include four players from our academy and five who were with the academy a year ago. They will have learned more from this game than they would have from playing four or five years in the Guinness A League. "If Leeds beat Newcastle we will go bottom but team spirit is fantastic and we are not going to back away from the challenge ahead."
Sale: Robinson; Cueto, Taylor, Todd, Mayor; Hodgson, Courrent; Sheridan, Titterrell, Stewart; Lobbe, C. Jones; White, Lund, Chabal.
Replacements: Bruno, Turner, Coutts, Bonner-Evans, Day, Wigglesworth, Foden.
Northampton: Reihana; Rudd, Clarke, Davies, Diggin; Myring, Howard; Smith, Richmond; Barnard, Lord, Dam Browne, Lewitt, Fox, Dan Browne.
Replacements: Hartley, Budgen, Rae, Harding, Easter, Robinson, Vilk.
Referee: D Pearson (RFU)
MMIX
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