Sale V Stourbridge

Sale 13 v Stourbridge 9

A bumper crowd of over 700 was in attendance at Heywood Road on Saturday to witness what was to be a hard fought victory over a tough Stourbridge side.

In a cagey opening quarter the main talking point was the brightly coloured change strip of Stourbridge. It was the Midlands outfit who drew first blood with an excellently converted penalty from Fly-Half Luke White in the 16th minute. Further indiscipline from Sale resulted in another penalty for Stourbridge in the 20th to put Stourbridge 0-6 up.

The first real action of the match came in he 25th minute when Sale number eight Tom Ailes produced some magical footwork to evade the Stourbridge defence in his own half and he charged up the field before flicking the ball right to Jack Moorhouse, fresh from scoring his 100th try for the club last week, to dive over in the corner. Captain, Liam McGovern added the extras to give Sale a 7-6 lead going into the break.

Stourbridge got the second half underway and the early exchanges matched that of the first. Indiscipline from both sides resulted in another penalty opportunity for Stourbridge which was coolly converted again by Luke White to give Stourbridge a 7-9 lead in the 49th minute.

Sale slowly started to excerpt control on the contest after this point and two penalties in quick succession by Sale fly-half Chris Johnson in the 62nd and 65th minutes gave Sale a 13-9 lead.

Sale retained control after this, largely keeping play in the Stourbridge half. Jack Moorhouse came closest with what looked to be a certain score, but a contender for tackle of the season by Stourbridge winger Ashley Elvers prevented him from going over.

Sale are now in 2nd place in National North 2. Level on points with Caldy and 1 point ahead of local rivals Sedgley Park in 3rd.