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Saracens bite back against Sale Sharks

(Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

Saracens put their off-field issues behind them to secure a convincing 36-22 Gallagher Premiership win over Sale Sharks.

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Manu Vunipola, on return from England Under-20s duty, scored 13 points for the hosts as kickers dominated play despite the blustery conditions.

Relegated Saracens extended their unbeaten home league record against the Sharks to 13 matches over 15 years, despite having seven players absent because of the Six Nations.

Sharks, who were looking for a third league win on the bounce, instead lost the opportunity to capitalise on fourth-placed Gloucester’s defeat to Exeter last night.

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Within 60 seconds of the start at Allianz Park the Sharks lost a lineout and Rhys Carre gathered the loose ball and carried it over for Sarries.

Winds from Storm Dennis could have suggested a tough fixture for kickers, but Rob Du Preez scored a penalty to put the Sharks on the scoreboard after Sarries failed to roll.

Then the hosts capitalised on three penalties awarded to them after a host of errors from Sharks. Two were converted by Vunipola and one by Alex Lozowski.

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Sale got a try back right on half-time. Springbok Dan Du Preez broke through the hosts’ back line, instigating some beautiful passes which ended with the ball in the hands of Byron McGuigan who took it over.

Rob Du Preez’s conversion reduced Sale’s deficit to just four points at the break.

Saracens Sale Sharks
(Photo by Henry Browne/Getty Images)

The London side were also the first to add to their tally in the second half, with Rotimi Segun’s try right in the far corner after a period of sustained attacking pressure from Sarries.

After Vunipola’s two-pointer, referee Wayne Barnes awarded Saracens a penalty for dissent from McGuigan. This was kicked from the halfway line for another three points by Vunipola, which put Saracens into a commanding 24-10 lead.

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Lock Nick Isiekwe scored Saracens’ next try after 55 minutes. Initially not given, Barnes changed his call after reviewing it on the big screen. Vunipola hit his conversion chance against the swaying posts.

After dogged pressure on the line, the hosts finally got it over through substitute Richard Barrington after playing advantage following a penalty call. Vunipola’s fifth successful kick gave Sarries a 26-point cushion going into the last 11 minutes.

Dan Du Preez drove over the line with nine minutes to go and Rob Du Preez got another with a minute left on the clock, but it was not enough to change the outcome.

Saracens made it their seventh win of the season, despite their relegation due to persistent salary cap breaches, denting Sale’s pursuit of a top-four finish.

PA

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J
JW 57 minutes ago
Does South Africa have a future in European competition?

I had a look at the wiki article again, it's all terribly old data (not that I'd see reason for much change in the case of SA).

Number Of Clubs:

1526

Registered+Unregistered Players:

651146

Number of Referees:

3460

Pre-teen Male Players:

320842

Pre-teen Female Player:

4522

Teen Male Player:

199213

Teen Female Player:

4906

Senior Male Player:

113174

Senior Female Player:

8489

Total Male Player:

633229

Total Female Player:

17917


So looking for something new as were more concerned with adults specifically, so I had a look at their EOY Financial Review.

The total number of clubs remains consistent, with a marginal increase of 1% from 1,161 to 1,167. 8.1.

A comparative analysis of verified data for 2022 and 2023 highlights a marginal decline of 1% in the number of female players, declining from 6,801 to 6,723. Additionally, the total number of players demonstrates an 8% decrease, dropping from 96,172 to 88,828.

So 80k+ adult males (down from 113k), but I'm not really sure when youth are involved with SAn clubs, or if that data is for some reason not being referenced/included. 300k male students however (200k in old wiki data).


https://resources.world.rugby/worldrugby/document/2020/07/28/212ed9cf-cd61-4fa3-b9d4-9f0d5fb61116/P56-57-Participation-Map_v3.pdf has France at 250k registered but https://presse-europe1-fr.translate.goog/exclu-europe-1-le-top-10-des-sports-les-plus-pratiques-en-france-en-2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp has them back up at 300k registered.


The French number likely Students + Club, but everyone collects data different I reckon. In that WR pdf for instance a lot of the major nations have a heavily registered setup, were as a nation like England can penetrate into a lot more schools to run camps and include them in the reach of rugby. For instance the SARU release says only 29% of schools are reached by proper rugby programs, where as the 2million English number would be through a much much higer penetration I'd imagine. Which is thanks to schools having the ability to involve themselves in programs more than anything.


In any case, I don't think you need to be concerned with the numbers, whether they are 300 or 88k, there is obviously a big enough following for their pro scenes already to have enough quality players for a 10/12 team competition. They appear ibgger than France but I don't really by the lower English numbers going around.

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