Sale Sharks’ second half fightback proves to be too little too late as Harlequins claim a 24-12 victory

Sale Sharks’ lethargic first half performance proved to be their downfall as they left Twickenham Stoop pointless and see Harlequins leapfrog them in the table.

Joe Marchant’s first half double on his 100^th Quins appearance punished Sharks who now find themselves winless at the Stoop in their last six league visits.

Both sides started hesitantly with errors preventing early attacking chances, however the hosts almost found a break through after 10 minutes.

A combination of an excellent line from Marchant and a Marcus Smith cross field kick, almost set up Aaron Morris to score. The winger was unable to handle the ball under pressure and could only knock on.

Sharks’ first opportunity of the game came from a Matt Postlethwaite charge down on Smith’s attempted clearance. The lock lacked pace to reach the try line and in the ruck Quins overturned to clear the pressure.

The breakthrough did arrive after 25 minutes from a well worked attacking Quins move. Possession was overturned on halfway and from Mike Browns break, space was created for the supporting Marchant to run clear to score. Smith converted.

Marchant had his second minutes later when he capitalised on a defensive slip up. Morris’ chip over the top was aided by a slip from Marland Yarde which allowed the centre to pick up and extend the lead.

The visitors were yet to trouble Quins and found themselves 21 points down minutes before the break when Alex Dombrandt crossed after another excellent break created the try. Smith’s dummy through the middle set up the No.8 who powered over for a third converted try.

Things went from bad to worse for Sharks before the interval as they were reduced to 14-men when Jean-Luc du Preez was shown a yellow card. After a TMO review, Ian Tempest sent the back row to the bin for an illegal clear out.

Despite falling a further three points behind to a Smith penalty, Sharks had started the second half brightly and thought they had scored 17 minutes after the restart. Sale’s first period of time in the Quins 22 looked to have been rewarded with a try when Curtis Langdon surged through, however on review, the substitute had fallen just short.

Langdon did cross on the hour after a powerful carry from the hooker saw him crash over underneath the posts. Rob du Preez made no mistake in adding the extras from the conversion.

The visitor’s substitutions had completely changed the course of the game, with Raffi Quirke adding pace to Sharks attacks. Quirke, who replaced Will Cliff on appearance No.200 for Sale, almost scored after a moment of brilliance. The scrum half wriggled out a tackle to sprint towards the line, but was denied by the Quins defence who again held the ball up.

The scoreline was reduced to 12 points with 10 minutes to go when R. du Preez dived over to give Sharks a lifeline. From a scrum, the ball was played out wide to the fly half to score from 5m, but the South African was unable to add the extras himself.

Quins thought they had secured a try bonus point with the last action of the game when Luke Northmore crossed, however, upon a TMO review, the ball had been played forward to the centre and the try was rightfully ruled out.

Overall Sharks were made to pay for their poor first half performance and despite a positive response after the restart, Alex Sanderson’s side were unable to rescue a point as they drop to fourth in the table.

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