RugbyRebels

London Irish: Parton; Rowe, Rona, Hepetema, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, White; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy Van der Merwe, Simmons, Coleman, Rogerson (capt), Donnell, Tuisue.

Replacements: Willemse, Dell, Hoskins, Nott, Mafi, O'Brien, O'Sullivan, Van Rensburg.

Sale Sharks: Hammersley; McGuigan, S James, Tuilagi, Yarde, MacGinty, Quirke; Rodd, Van der Merwe, Schonert, Wiese, JP Du Preez, Neild, B Curry, Ross (capt).

Replacements: Taylor, Harrison, Oosthuizen, Birch, Dugdale, Cliff, Wilkinson, Solomona

Pretty start from Sale, nice reaction on turnover, good simple work by Manu, and some nice passing/support to finish it.

Irish just haven't really had the ball yet. Yarde with a nice try off a very messy maul.

Yep. Sale have had all of the possession and are making it count.

Tuilagi looking sharp. Ben Curry has looked good so far too.

Slimline manu looking fantastic.

Irish finally string some phases together and score. Sale defence looked really comfortable, but then Irish managed to get through the middle with a bit of offloading. I strongly suspect Sale take this, but they really can't afford to go to sleep on Irish.

Coms saying Yarde stopped, he didn't stop straight away, and all the forwards, including the ones who made the tackle, never retreated either. No issue with that pen from me.

Raggs wrote:Coms saying Yarde stopped, he didn't stop straight away, and all the forwards, including the ones who made the tackle, never retreated either. No issue with that pen from me.

That's a good point - I had thought it was harsh because Yarde did stop and retreat, but I hadn't taken into account that his run what what had put all of the forwards "onside"

Puja

Puja wrote:

Raggs wrote:Coms saying Yarde stopped, he didn't stop straight away, and all the forwards, including the ones who made the tackle, never retreated either. No issue with that pen from me.

That's a good point - I had thought it was harsh because Yarde did stop and retreat, but I hadn't taken into account that his run what what had put all of the forwards "onside"

Puja

Exactly the issue. And Yarde went far enough to influence the decisions of the jumper etc too I felt.

Can't believe Sale might be throwing away the win here. Fair play to Irish, although I can't help laughing every time Jackson takes a kick and their advertising hoardings ask me to "Please respect the kicker." Unlikely that that will happen.

Puja

Puja wrote:Can't believe Sale might be throwing away the win here. Fair play to Irish, although I can't help laughing every time Jackson takes a kick and their advertising hoardings ask me to "Please respect the kicker." Unlikely that that will happen.

Puja

A draw. 3pts a piece seems about right to be honest. Sale were utterly dominant at first, but then just sort of stopped bothering. McGinty played a part in that, but it just felt like Irish got the better half time speech in my mind.

Fair play to Irish for coming back but Sale turned off after h/t. Entertaining game, though.

I think Sale probably look back on that as a very decent 3 points gained tbh. That’s as strong a team as Irish will have out all season and Sale missing loads. Factor in 3 dropping out before ko and losing Curry and AJ before half time. Look at the teams on the field for that last 25/30 minutes and no surprise Irish came back very strong.

Timbo wrote:I think Sale probably look back on that as a very decent 3 points gained tbh. That’s as strong a team as Irish will have out all season and Sale missing loads. Factor in 3 dropping out before ko and losing Curry and AJ before half time. Look at the teams on the field for that last 25/30 minutes and no surprise Irish came back very strong.

No way, they had a 17 point lead at one point didn't they? You should never look at a 17 point lead and think I'm glad we got a draw.

Timbo wrote:I think Sale probably look back on that as a very decent 3 points gained tbh. That’s as strong a team as Irish will have out all season and Sale missing loads. Factor in 3 dropping out before ko and losing Curry and AJ before half time. Look at the teams on the field for that last 25/30 minutes and no surprise Irish came back very strong.

Definitely 2, almost 5 points dropped. Not 3 points won

So Tuilagi did 80, looking slimmer, anything else? After all this time it's still hard not to get carried away with the idea of him being fit and available for an extended period.

Mikey Brown wrote:So Tuilagi did 80, looking slimmer, anything else? After all this time it's still hard not to get carried away with the idea of him being fit and available for an extended period.

Put in some good carries, some nice handling moments (not amazing, but just decent). Not sure on defence.