Sale FC vs Blackheath

Preview

Blackheath fly out of the traps to down Sale

Sixth placed Blackheath headed to Heywood Road to take on a Sale side just one place below them in the table.

On a warm sunny afternoon, Club, perhaps smarting from their defeat by Sedgley Park the previous week, started like a house on fire. They took the lead as early as the 4th minute when former Dog, Oskar Hirskyj-Douglas, scored after good work from fellow centre, Jake Hennessey. Tom Ffitch made no mistake with the conversion. 0-7

Matters got worse for Sale when, two minutes later, lively scrum-half, Jordan Burns, ghosted through a gap to score under the post; Ffitch added the simple kick. 0-14

The wind was completely taken out of the Dogs’ sail in the 9th minute when more good attacking play saw the ball chipped through the defensive line for full back, Augustine Slowik to collect and dot down with Ffitch again on target. 0-21

Sale finally got themselves into the game in the 20th minute when a period of pressure near the opposition line eventually led to Stone Priestley-Nangle barging over; James Robins added the extras. 7-21

This appeared to give the hosts a lift but disaster struck in the 33rd minute when a lofted pass on the opposition 22 bounced into the hands of Burns who scampered away for his second try of the game; Ffitch continued his fine afternoon from the tee. HT 7-28

The start of the second half saw the Dogs’ scrum dominating and earn a couple of penalties, but the visitors weathered the storm and had chances to extend the lead with two penalty kicks from Ffitch drifting marginally wide in the 53rd and 55th minutes.

The visitors continued to look impressive with the ball in hand and put the game beyond doubt in the 68th minute as Ffitch surged over to take his personal haul to 13 points. 7-33

With the game effectively over, Sale threw caution to the wind, running the ball at every opportunity and they, arguably, scored the try  of the game with seven minutes to go as centre, Ossian Roberts, zigzagged his way to the tryline, leaving a trail of defenders in his wake; Robins kicked the two. 14-33

The Dogs rescued some pride with the final play of the game as they moved the ball wide at pace for Tom Brady to splash over in the corner. FT 19-33

Not to be for the Dogs as Club earned the victory with their breakdown and defensive work particularly impressive.