Sale go clear at top with narrow win over Saracens

Sale Sharks moved four points clear at the top of the Premiership as they edged past champions Saracens.

Agustin Creevy, Tom Roebuck and Luke Cowan-Dickie crossed for the hosts, with Ivan van Zyl and Gareth Simpson getting Saracens’ tries.

The visitors stay fourth, but are now five points behind the leaders.

Sharks’ fortress

A bumper crowd of 9,675 turned up for what was the biggest match of the Premiership campaign so far and a repeat of last season’s final, which Saracens won.

Sale are determined to wrest that crown off them as they seek to become English champions for the first time since 2006.

They have started this season in determined fashion, with their home form again the bedrock of their good results.

Unbeaten in 14 months at the Salford Community Stadium, fierce wind and occasional bursts of rain provided an inhospitable welcome for Saracens – conditions as different from the glorious sunshine of Twickenham last May as it was possible to provide.

Ford v Farrell

And as ever when these two sides meet, focus inevitably fell on the two number 10s, George Ford and Owen Farrell.

With the England and Saracens captain Farrell having announced his intention to skip the Six Nations, his Sale counterpart is in pole position to claim the jersey for the opening game away to Italy on 3 February.

Farrell’s boot gave the London side an early lead before Creevy went over for the hosts following a rolling maul from a five-metre line-out after Saracens had been given an extra 10-yard penalty for not retreating.

The Sale fly-half almost provided one for the highlights reel when he dummied to pass and spotted a gap, only for a last-gasp tackle from Van Zyl to bring him down a couple of metres short of the line.

But in the last play of the half, the Saracens number nine read Ford’s intentions and ran in unopposed from near halfway for an interception try.

Farrell nearly had a dose of that medicine at the start of the second period when Rob du Preez was in close to charge down his kick, but the fly-half got back to make a crucial tackle as Du Preez threatened to burst clear.

But Sale were not to be denied for long as they worked the ball along the line for Roebuck to go over near the corner.

And when visiting prop Alec Clarey was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on Nick Schonert, the hosts turned the screw with replacement hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie going over in an almost identical move to Creevy’s first-half score.

The fly-halves exchanged penalties, but replacement scrum-half Simpson’s score, after brilliant ball work from Maro Itoje set up a grandstand finish.

Ford hit the upright with a late penalty kick, but Sale held on for an excellent win to underline their title credentials.

The only concern for the Premiership leaders was Manu Tuilagi going off early. Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson said the England centre had suffered a groin injury and the club will wait for further news on the extent of the injury.

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson said:

“This victory is sweeter, of course it is. As I said last year, the people you love the most are the ones you want to beat the most and I do, I have a lot of love for them [Saracens].

“The set-piece was phenomenal today and that’s probably what squeezed them in terms of the penalty count.

“We were pretty similar in terms of metres, carries, stuff like that, so it was the set-piece that set us apart.

“It’s a focus every week and we struggled a bit early in the season with the scrum but we seem to have found some form there.”

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said:

“When the scrum was the way ours was tonight, it’s extremely difficult to win a game against the quality of Sale, and they’re a quality side.

“But I’m really pleased and proud that we showed the fight and the energy around those things to stay in the fight, and to claw our way back into the game.

“It can happen to be dominated in the scrum like that and we’ve got the players to fix it.”

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, R du Preez, Tuilagi, Reed; Ford, Warr; Harrison, Creevy, Schonert, Wiese, Hill, van Rhyn, B Curry (c), JL du Preez.

Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, Onasanya, Opoku-Fordjour, Beaumont, Dugdale, Thomas, James, Bedlow.

Saracens: Goode; Cinti, Tompkins, Hartley, Maitland; Farrell (c), van Zyl; Mako Vunipola, George, Clarey, Itoje, McFarland, Gonzalez, Christie, B Vunipola.

Replacements: Dan, West, Mulipola, Tizard, Knight, Simpson, Manu Vunipola, Parton.

Sin-bin: Clarey (47).

Referee: Ian Tempest.