Match Report

Following an encouraging start to the season last week Sale 2nd XV travelled to Chester expecting a tough challenge at last season’s league champions.

Sale started the game strongly, putting a number of phases together and Chester under pressure. However, Sale then conceded several penalties resulted in Ben Simpson going to the sin bin.  With the man advantage Chester camped on the Sale line and using the width of pitch released the wing to score giving Chester a 5-0 lead mainly against the run of play

From the restart Sale were dominating large phases of the game but were inaccurate at times and giving too many penalties away. Some great play by Jack Moorhouse and Sam Stelmaszek down the blind side sent Jack Moorhouse into the corner to take the score to 5-5. A difficult conversion was missed be matt Simpson. On the fast 4G pitch some magic from Anthony Bingham saw him score what appeared to be an acrobatic try in the corner but this was unfortunately disallowed and the game hit half time level.

Second half was end to end with both sides playing attacking rugby but indiscipline again by Sale was causing issues. Great work on the right flank saw Moorhouse go through a gap and the ball found it’s way inside to Sam Stelmaszek who streaked home under the sticks to put sale up 10-5.  Matt Simpson converting to make the score 12-5.

Chester started to put Sale under pressure and had several unsuccessful attempts at goal from penalties. Finally with about 5 minutes to go Chester had a 9 man lineout and Sale were unable to stop the rolling maul, taking the score to 12-12. Sale immediately went back on the attack put could not get the decisive score so the game ended level at 12-12.

This is very encouraging result with the Sale squad again containing 6 of last season’s senior colts who are getting great support and encouragement from the senior players.

Special mention to Jack Moorhouse for his man of match display, closely followed by Alex Davidson who rumbled and hit hard all day in the unfamiliar 6 shirt.

Preview of the game

Last week Sale FC 2s were competitive but ultimately fell to a more experienced Fylde 2’s who’d been together a lot longer and clearly were a more complete team. This week the travel down to Chester sees us face a side that won last weekend by beating Vale of Lune 72-5. Although this team has Internationals such as Jamaican 7’s player Anthony Bingham, it also has a good selection of last seasons Sale FC Colts playing.

Felix Egan, Nick Tumulty, Jayden Gunn, Joe Horsfall, Paddy Kearns, Jarrod Townsend, Callum Ramsey and John Norton all make the step up from last season’s Sale FC Colts.