Deacon: “It’s an important eight days for us.”

Sale Sharks attack coach, Paul Deacon was happy with the second-half performance from his side, but knows they have a big week ahead of them.

Sale Sharks defeated Newcastle Falcons 54-12 in their last game of the regular Gallagher Premiership season, but have a semi-final next week against Leicester Tigers to look forward to.

Deacon reiterated how important it was to keep momentum going ahead of the semi-final in the clash against the Falcons.

He said: “Yeah, it’s all we spoke about really for the last two weeks, obviously not having a game last week.

“So it was important.

“We kept a bit of continuity in the selection.

“Kept our form.

“I thought we did that for most of the game today.”

Sale trailed by seven points after the first three minutes when Pedro Rubiolo crashed over for the visitors, but Deacon was pleased with his side’s response.

“Little bit of a slow start,” he said.

“We expected that from Newcastle, to come out firing with the team they’ve got.

“Some dangerous backs, haven’t they?

“So they had a bit of a go at us in the first 20 minutes, but I thought we rode that way pretty well and came back and pretty good professional performance in the end.”

Deacon, who has been with the Sharks since 2015, was happy with how Sale stormed ahead in the second period.

He said: “The first 20 minutes of the second half I thought we came out and just did what we said we were going to do.

“Very pleased in that and took the game away from Newcastle in them 20 minutes.”

Sale had a strong side out including the likes of George Ford, Rob Du Preez, Jonny Hill and Ben Curry, and Deacon knows how hard of a job it will be to pick next week’s semi-final team.

“No injuries today, which is good,” he said.

“There’ll be some selection headaches for next week.

“We’re looking well, we just need to prepare well now with eight days till we take them on.

“It’s an important eight days for us.”

7,917 fans packed out the AJ Bell Stadium for the northern clash and next week’s home semi-final is already sold out.

Deacon believes the fans have made a real difference to the campaign and wants the team to give back to the loyal fans the club have.

He said: “The fans this year have been great.

“Our attendances have gone up.

“We’ve had a few big attendances.

“The old faithful who have supported for years and years, we owe them it as well.

“It’s great to have the semi-final in front of them for the first time since 2006.”

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