Impressive Sale Sharks hold off Harlequins to keep play-off hopes alive
Joe Carpenter of Sale Sharks is tackled by Harlequins' Cadan Murley.
Sale Sharks stayed in the hunt for the play-offs when they sealed a 37-31 win over Harlequins in their Premiership clash at the Salford Stadium on Sunday.
As the scoreline suggests, this was an exciting encounter as both sides scored five tries apiece with Arron Reed leading the way for the home side with a brace of five-pointers in his 100th game for the club, while Ben Curry, Sam Dugdale and Raffi Quirke also crossed the whitewash.
Sale‘s other points came via the boot of George Ford, who added 12 points courtesy of three conversions and two penalties.
For Harlequins, Louis Lynagh (2), Raffi Quirke, Oscar Beard and Luke Northmore crossed for tries while Marcus Smith (2) and Jarrod Evans succeeded with conversions.
Click here for scorers
The Manchester club have jumped from eighth to sixth in a tight Premiership table, while the Londoners slipped out of the top-four places to fifth.
Sale started with real intent from kick-off and within two minutes their skipper Curry powered over off a driving lineout to open the scoring.
A rapid kick and chase from deep by Sale wing Tom Roebuck put Harlequins on the back foot immediately after the restart before Cobus Wiese powered over Smith to break the Londoners down and some quick interplay found Dugdale on the left for the flanker to slide over.
Ford extended Sale’s lead to 15-0 from the tee after just 13 minutes but Harlequins bounced back, putting pressure on the Salford side with four successive lineouts from five metres out. Then six quick phases saw inside centre Andre Esterhuizen set up a three-on-one for wing Lynagh to power over on the right corner.
The Middlesex men kept Sale pinned deep in their 22-metre area and another Quins lineout led to a near repeat try, a long looping Smith pass to full-back Tyrone Green pulling Sharks narrow for Lynagh to sidestep Joe Carpenter and dot down in the corner.
In an end-to-end fashion, the Sharks’ pace in the loose pushed Quins back and a Ford chip to Curry was ping-ponged back to Reed for the winger to muscle over and re-extend Sale’s lead on his 100th appearance.
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A sloppy tackle on Sale number nine Gus Warr allowed Ford to extend the Sharks’ lead just after the restart.
Harlequins, blowing hot and cold, got their act together once more, Esterhuizen pulling in several defenders before Chandler Cunningham-South became the catalyst, powering through the blue line to set up Murley on the left for the winger’s 50th try in Harlequins colours.
Quins capitalised from a lineout. With the forwards pulling in Sale’s men, outside centre Beard found a gap to slip through and score the bonus-point try.
Lady luck shone on Sale as replacement back Tom O’Flaherty’s charge down found Quirke and the England star dashed over for the Sharks’ bonus point.
Sale looked comfortable being a man down and O’Flaherty linked up with outside centre Rob du Preez, whose beautiful long pass found Reed, and the Cheshire man’s electric pace put several defenders in a spin as he shot over the try line on the left.
Murley slipped through several Sale players to set up replacement Northmore for a consolation try, and Smith’s conversation gave Harlequins a second and crucial bonus point in the final minutes.
The teams
Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Rob du Preez, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Arron Reed, 10 George Ford, 9 Gus Warr, 8 Jean-Luc du Preez, 7 Sam Dugdale, 6 Ben Curry (c), 5 Josh Beaumont, 4 Cobus Wiese, 3 James Harper, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Bevan Rodd
Replacements: 16 Tommy Taylor, 17 Simon McIntyre, 18 WillGriff John, 19 Ben Bamber, 20 Hyron Andrews, 21 Raffi Quirke, 22 Sam James, 23 Tom O’Flaherty
Harlequins: 15 Tyrone Green, 14 Cadan Murley, 13 Oscar Beard, 12 Andre Esterhuizen, 11 Louis Lynagh, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Will Porter, 8 Alex Dombrandt, 7 Will Evans, 6 Chandler Cunningham-South, 5 Stephan Lewies (c), 4 Irne Herbst, 3 Dillon Lewis, 2 Sam Riley, 1 Joe Marler
Replacements: 16 Jack Walker, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Simon Kerrod, 19 George Hammond, 20 Tom Lawday, 21 Danny Care, 22 Jarrod Evans, 23 Luke Northmore
Referee: Tom Foley
Assistant Referees: Hamish Smales, John Meredith
TMO: Dean Richards