| There
are games of Rugby which inch along, feeling tense, and close and
low scoring, which then surprise you by looking like a rout at the
final whistle. This was one of them. Following an incredibly long
first half, in which neither side seemed capable of slotting a kick
the scores stood at 5 all, but it could so easily have been 19-8 in
Sale's favour.
The
five points came courtesy of a piece of Chabal magic in the scrum
- flicking the ball off the floor from his bound in number eight
position like a sevens scrum half. The recipient of the beautifully
executed move was Sililo Martens who grasped the opportunity with
gusto to cross for the first try of the night.
The
game had been played almost exclusively deep in Scarlets' territory,
but shortly after Stuart Turner was sent to the sin bin the welshmen
managed to start putting real pressure on the Sale try line. Twice
they kicked for the corner and failed to cross from the resulting
lineout. They threw the book at Sale, running wide, chinking in,
rolling maul after maul. The try was inevitable, and when it came,
right in front of the majority of the visiting Llanelli fans, it
was well deserved.
Larrechea
has come on leaps and bound as a fly half, though nobody would deny
he is best playing at full back. Were it not for his goal kicking
frailty the game would have been sewn up in the first half. He deferred
this responsibility to Lee Thomas shortly before the break and it
was this simple move, not off the back of a set piece move, but
as a pragmatic response to a problem, whit turned the game around.
Thomas slotted his first attempt perfectly, and the Sharks went
into the dressing room 8-5 up.
The
second half was all Sale. Every kick offered to Thomas was knocked
between the posts. He ended the game as man of the match, and there
was talk in the Cheadle End about making him fly half for the upcoming
games against Stade Francais. This might be a bit unfair on Larrechea,
but there should be no question that Thomas must retain his first
team jersey.
The
wheels finally fell off for Llanelli when the imperious Jason Robinson
caught the ball near the right touchline and promptly shrugged off
two tacklers, jumped out of the reach of a third and side stepped
two more to score a truly excellent try.
So
in the end a 21-5 thumping of the Scarlets and a semi-final day
out at Cardiff against Leicester due in March. This team can beat
Stade Francais once or even twice in the next two weeks, but it
is going to be an enormous undertaking.
Report
by Ben Lomond for salesupporters.co.uk
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