Sale Sharks fight back to beat league leaders Saracens

Sale Sharks fought back from 16-0 down to get a bonus-point 35-24 victory over Gallagher Premiership leaders Saracens at the AJ Bell Stadium.

A late first-half yellow card for Alex Goode saw the game sway in the home side’s favour meaning they could grab two tries to before the break to reduce the capital side’s lead to five points at the interval.

Second-half tries from Joe Carpenter, captain Jono Ross and Jean-Luc Du Preez in the last minute saw the northern side come away with all five available points but crucially denying Saracens a losing bonus point.

Saracens started the better of the two sides with the boot of Alex Goode putting them 6-0 up after 16 minutes. The visitors were the first to get a try on the board as Alex Lewington grabbed his fourth try in three matches.

The winger walked it in after good interplay by the Sarries backs to release him on the right wing. Saracens extended their lead in the 27th minute when 22-year-old Theo Dan went over to continue his fine form in the place of England’s Jamie George.

The hooker was at the back of a powerful Saracens driving maul, which drove the Sale pack back to score the try. The match swayed the way of the home side in the 31st minute when the TMO, Claire Hodnett noticed a block by Alex Goode on Tom O’Flaherty leading to the full-back receiving a yellow card.

From the resulting penalty, Sale kicked to touch before playing it out wide from the lineout to Carpenter who scored Sale’s first try of the day as they made advantage of the extra man to get back into the match.

The home side gave away a penalty from kick-off meaning Saracens could extend their lead once again through the boot of Manu Vunipola as the fly-half stood in for Goode to kick the three points.

On the stroke of half-time the home side went over for their second try of the game as Tom O’Flaherty broke through before offloading to Sam James to score the try.

There was controversy over whether the final pass by O’Flaherty was forward or not but TMO Hodnett said “nothing compelling”.

Sale Sharks thought they had the first try of the second period when O’Flaherty dived over in the but after a TMO review it was clear that the former Exeter Chiefs player was in touch before he dotted down. This was due to a sensational last-ditch tackle by Alex Lozowski who covered a huge amount of ground to even get close to O’Flaherty.

Sale had the advantage in the scrummage department and from a scrum penalty in the 53rd minute James kicked them within 10 metres of the Saracens line. From the resulting lineout, the Sale backline did superbly to set up Carpenter who picked a brilliant line to power over for his second try of the match.

With the Rob Du Preez conversion Sale lead for the first time in the match by 21 points to 19. Sale once again won a scrum penalty and kicked to the corner five minutes later but this time Saracens defended the driving maul well to win the put in at the scrum.

Sale quickly won the ball back though and in the 61st minute Rob Du Preez kicked across the field to an open Ross who caught and crashed over for Sale Sharks bonus-point try.

Saracens responded immediately as they kicked to within five metres and drove over from a rolling maul with substitute hooker Kapeli Pifeleti getting the try.

With just over ten minutes left in the match the complexion of the game changed.

Carpenter once again waved his way through a gap but was met with a high tackle to head by substitute Robin Hislop and after a lengthy TMO review Foley brandished the red card to the former Wasps man meaning Sarries had to play the remainder of the game with 14 men.

However, it was actually Saracens who were on the attack for the following five minutes with Sale finally getting a defensive break when they stole a Saracens lineout and captain Ross kicked clear.

In the final play of the game Sale made sure Saracens would return to the capital empty handed as Jean-Luc Du Preez drove over to put the lead beyond losing bonus-point territory.

With Jean-Luc’s brother Rob nailing the conversion the match finished up 35 points to 24.

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