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Arron Reed double sees Sale down Harlequins

By PA
Aaron Reed of Sale Sharks celebrates scoring a try during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Sale Sharks and Harlequins at AJ Bell Stadium on April 21, 2024 in Salford, England. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for Sale Sharks)

Arron Reed celebrated a century of appearances with a double as an entertaining Sale side outwitted Harlequins to win a 10-try thriller 37-31.

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Captain Ben Curry, openside Sam Dugdale and scrum-half Raffi Quirke all crossed the try line for Alex Sanderson’s side, with the win giving Sale a serious chance of making the play-offs.

The Manchester club have jumped from eighth to sixth in a tight Gallagher Premiership table, while the Londoners slipped out of the top-four places to fifth.

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Sharks started with real intent from kick-off and within two minutes their skipper Curry powered over off a driving lineout to open the scoring.

A rapid kick and chase from deep by Sale wing Tom Roebuck put Harlequins on the back foot immediately after the restart before Cobus Wiese powered over Marcus Smith to break the Londoners down and some quick interplay found Dugdale on the left for the flanker to slide over.

Fixture
Gallagher Premiership
Sale
37 - 31
Full-time
Harlequins
All Stats and Data

George Ford extended Sale’s lead to 15-0 from the tee after just 13 minutes but Harlequins bounced back, putting pressure on the Salford side with four successive lineouts from five metres out. Then six quick phases saw inside centre Andre Esterhuizen set up a three-on-one for wing Louis Lynagh to power over on the right corner.

The Middlesex men kept Sale pinned deep in their 22-metre area and another Quins lineout led to a near repeat try, a long looping Smith pass to fullback Tyrone Green pulling Sharks narrow for Lynagh to sidestep Joe Carpenter and dot down in the corner.

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In an end-to-end fashion, Sharks’ pace in the loose pushed Quins back and a Ford chip to Curry was ping-ponged back to Reed for the winger to muscle over and re-extend Sale’s lead on his 100th appearance.

A sloppy tackle on Sale number nine Gus Warr allowed Ford to extend Sharks’ lead just after the restart.

Harlequins, blowing hot and cold, got their act together once more, Esterhuizen pulling in several defenders before Chandler Cunningham-South became the catalyst, powering through the blue line to set up Cadan Murley on the left for the winger’s 50th try in Harlequins colours.

Quins capitalised from a lineout. With the forwards pulling in Sale’s men, outside centre Oscar Beard found a gap to slip through and score the bonus-point try.

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Lady luck shone on Sale as replacement back Tom O’Flaherty’s charge down found Quirke and the England star dashed over for Sharks’ bonus point.

Sale looked comfortable being a man down and O’Flaherty linked up with outside centre Rob du Preez, whose beautiful long pass found Reed, and the Cheshire man’s electric pace put several defenders in a spin as he shot over the try line on the left.

Murley slipped through several Sale players to set up replacement Luke Northmore for a consolation try, and Smith’s conversation gave Harlequins a second and crucial bonus point in the final minutes.

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JW 58 minutes ago
Scott Robertson explains the new halves pairing for the All Blacks ahead of France

More indecision and excuses from Razor.


You've given a spot at 6 to Finau whom you haven't even had the courage to use off the bench in the last two games. Now the young enforcer is going into a big much with no rugby, we should expect a similar result to how Aumua struggled to impact a game after he'd hardly been given any chances of the bench either.


Weve now dropped a back three player who also wasn't even given any game time off the bench for someone coming in cold when they really need to have been playing constantly to perform at their best. There are just so many better pictures that should have been present rather than this mickey mouse selection.


I really hope Finau can overcome this, it won't be the first time he's had to. How is the bench even made up? Could you not just have included these changes in the article as well? I actually like BB coming back in, it highlights how courageous he is after sitting out through another concussion that could just as easily sent him back into months of symptoms again.


Dmac was also off his game last week, as was Ratima, with the poor platform Razor and his team have been setting the players up with. He needs to freedom to clear his mind from the clutter that saw him make so many bad decisions last week. It will still probably be a net loss for the team performance not having him on from the start but it should be better for them in the long run if he's allowed to just come on late and play his game trying to claw things back for the team.


With Roigard starting that might prove an outlet for the team to actually get on top first however. Along with Ardie busting a gut in his new role and emptying the tank by halftime, and being replaced by another new star, might mean that Dmac is just icing on the cake at the end.

13 Go to comments
F
Flankly 1 hour ago
Jake White: If I was England coach, I’d have been livid

I am not an England fan, but still very disappointed at what Borthwick is serving up. Regardless of winning or losing, they should be executing the basics at a world class level. That was the reason they replaced Eddie with Steve. After two years England has not built the solid foundations that the RFU were presumably after. Its hard to see it as anything other than a coaching problem.


Having said that I really hope that Rassie has got his team fired up for the game. The Boks at maximum intensity and with no crises (eg red cards) would be expected to win this game. But it does not take much reduction in pressure for Bok teams to lose. The Boks lose when complacency sets in.


On Felix Jones, my guess is that they can't agree on a non-compete so they kept him on payroll for the duration of the Nov tests. The risk was that he would be hired by Rassie or Razor prior to the tests.


As relates to law tweaking, it feels like WR are more comfortable discussing changes in laws than insisting on implementation. For my money the biggest thing they could do is to be strict and consistent in officiating ruck behavior. In every game we see flopping, lazy lying, clearing of unbound players, making plays while off your feet, delays in placing the ball, side entry, offside line infringements, and similar nonsense. It's really really bad, and the WR attitude seems to be that we should turn a blind eye in pursuit of "flowing rugby". In truth it's just boring, because it randomizes the outcome.

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