Fergus Mulchrone fends off on the way to the line

Sale win Christmas cracker at Carrington

 

With the playing surface at Heywood Road unfit, a small army of coaches and volunteers came together to ensure that the game against 4th placed Rosslyn Park could go ahead at the Carrington training centre.

After some early kick tennis on a freezing cold afternoon, the men from London opened the scoring with a pushover try from Sam Garvey. 0-5

Sale responded within 5 minutes as the rolling maul, a real attacking weapon in recent weeks, proved unstoppable with Josh Brown scoring; James Robins added a fine conversion from out wide. 7-5

Strong defence from both sides saw opportunities at a premium but the blue and whites increased their lead in the 35th minute, Seb Cecil benefiting from another catch and drive; James Robins again adding the extras. 14-5

With time in the red, the visitors were awarded a penalty around 25m out and Craig Holland made no mistake from the tee. HT 14-8

The early stages of the second 40 saw both sides attacking but, after a fabulous 50/22 from Matt Bradley, Sale increased their lead again. Fergus Mulchrone was the hero of the home victory against the same opposition last season with a spectacular match winning try in the last minute and, in similar fashion, he handed off several would-be tacklers to score. 19-8

Park closed the gap again when replacement Charles Piper crashed over and Monty Bradbury converted. 19-15

The dogs soon put that disappointment behind them when they took advantage of the visitors being reduced to 14 men, Tumy Onasanya barging over the line with 8 minutes to play. 24-15

The away side had plenty of late pressure to snatch a bonus point but the Sale defence proved a tough nut to crack. FT 24-15

A second bonus point win in a row against another good top 4 side sees us joint top of National One heading into our final game before Christmas at Leeds next week.