Sale Sharks build momentum ahead of semi-final with dominant display

Sale Sharks beat Newcastle Falcons 54-12 in commanding fashion at the AJ Bell Stadium.

The battle of the north was never really close as Sale ran away with the lead in the second-half, running in eight tries.

Sale will now turn their attention to their first home semi-final in 17 years against Leicester Tigers next Sunday.

Falcons made a strong start, catching the hosts off guard as Pedro Rubiolo buried over for the visitors after three minutes.

Sale Sharks responded six minutes later when Tom Roebuck collected a high ball by George Ford, to race in under the posts and level the match after Ford’s conversion.

Sam James came on for Manu Tuilagi early on and he made an instant impact scoring Sale’s second try of the afternoon after great interplay between himself and Joe Carpenter.

Falcons continued to frustrate the hosts but Ben Curry powered over from close range to extend the Sharks advantage before the break.

Sale started the second-half much better than the first 40 as Bevan Rodd dove in in the corner only four minutes into the second period.

This came after great handling from the forward pack to release Jean-Luc Du Preez through a gap, before the ball was fed out wide to Rodd.

Sale bagged their fifth try of the match in the 54th minute when the returning Raffi Quirke pounced on loose play by Newcastle in the middle of the park to race under the posts and dot down.

Falcons came back into the match just past the hour mark, but despite having two lineout drives five metres out from the hosts line they couldn’t make the pressure count, with Sale clearing their lines.

Under no pressure Adam Radwan dropped the ball on his own five metre line with 15 minutes left in the game and this went on to be a costly mistake for the visitors as Sale earned a penalty try from the resulting scrum.

Substitute Phil Brantingham was shown a yellow card for his involvement in the penalty try and Sale made this extra man count in the remaining ten minutes, running in another two tries through Arron Reed and Sam James.

Reed’s try in the corner was hugely due to a great offload assist by Joe Carpenter, while James showed great flexibility to stretch over the line for his second try of the game.

Despite a great last-ditch tackle by Rob Du Preez on Newcastle flyer Mateo Carreras in the corner, Sale did concede a late try.

English hooker, Jamie Blamire, powered over from a few yards to reduce the deficit, but it was a day to forget for the men from Newcastle.

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