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Sale Sharks’ win streak ends with tough home loss to Harlequins

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Sale’s 7 wins from 7 games run ended with a 29-13 loss at the AJ Bell Stadium.ย 

Sharks missed their chance to go top of the table however remain in second spot at the end of round seven.

The Sunday afternoon clash in Salford represented a unique landmark in Sale’s season and for the Premiership, the first game broadcast live on ITV and on free-to-air TV. Meaning a significantly boosted audience tuning in at home that the Sharks would be eager to please.

After previous wins over Exeter and Leicester, Sharks were playing for the chance to boast beating all three previous Premiership Champions with a win over Harlequins, who won the coveted centrepiece in 2021.

Seven Sharks were named in international squads for the Autumn fixtures through the week, and all seven were named to start by Head Coach Alex Sanderson, Rodd, Hill, Curry, Quirke, Tuilagi and Roebuck were all named in Englandโ€™s squad, while Ashman was picked for Scotland. Quins bragged their own duo of internationals, with Smith and Murley named in their backline.

Both sides showed early flashes of life, Sale had a Tom Roebuck try disallowed for a knock-on in the build-up before Harlequins posted the first points in the 12th minute. Danny Care sniping through the middle before linking with Marcus Smith whose grubber found Nick David in the corner to score, 0-7.

Sharks struck back in the type of fashion deserving of the ITV cameras. Joe Carpenter cleaned up a Smith chip, beating two Quins defenders, before his chip found Quirke who linked with Sam James to run in under the posts untouched.

Rob Du Preez and Smith swapped penalties to lock the teams up at 10-10 with both sides coming close to taking the lead. It was Smith who finally crossed the whitewash and scored off a Joe Marchant line break, wrapping up a first half of immense tension and gripping running rugby, at 10-17 to Quins.

Smith and Du Preez again swapped penalties to make the score 13-20 and establish a nail-biting last half an hour at the AJ Bell.

Harlequins struck the first blow, with another Smith penalty with 25 minutes to go to restore Quins lead to 10 and added three more 10 minutes later. The killer blow came with 10 minutes left, Sale giving away another soft penalty which Smith dutifully converted to stretch the lead to 16 and more than two converted tries, a lead which proved to insurmountable for Sale. Sharks poor discipline proving to be the decisive factor in a very competitive match.

Sale had a chance to claw back some pride on the scoreboard in the last play of the game, Reed putting the ball down in the corner, but the final pass from Roebuck was deemed forward and the try was scrubbed, an accurate reflection of a frustrating afternoon for Sale.

A brave performance from Sale but a clinical and thorough performance from Harlequins who deserved the win.

After the game, Alex Sanderson admitted that the occasion got the better of Sale. “The lads mentioned after that they felt it was the first time they’d felt frantic almost.

“We have been operating with an unflappable calmness the last five weeks and today maybe we strayed slightly away from that and maybe we did things outside the structure and doing uncharacteristic things.

“Seven visits to the 22 and one try is not like us, but today was the exception and not the rule”.

One positive for Sale was the 7,424-attendance figure, 1,000 more than last week vs Irish and around 2,000 more than the season average so far.

Next week Sale travel away to league-leaders Saracens where they will get a second chance to go to the summit of the Premiership table.

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