by Shark Sale 24 La Rochelle 37
England captain Ben Curry was left with a scare as two-time champions La Rochelle eliminated Sale Sharks from the Champions Cup’s knockout stages, their victory not as comfortable as the scoreline.
The sell-out was already bare-bones going into this game for the winners at the sold-out AJ Bell Stadium with 12 players, including Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry and a whole battalion of loose ends on the injury list. Unfortunately, some more of those bare bones were cracked and crunched.
In the second set Jonny Hill suffered a suspected dislocated knee cap, which involved a lengthy stoppage. His replacement Tom Ellis was soon out of the game and his replacement Dan Du Preez did not last the course, which meant that Sale finished the game with 14 men, including three props.
Against the odds, plenty of northern grit was on display. Curry rolled his left ankle but although he was barely able to stand on it he managed to win a turnover. Director of rugby sales Alex Sanderson hopes he will still be available for England’s Six Nations campaign which begins against Italy on February 3. “Ben’s going to England, I think that’s fine,” Sanderson said. “He rolled his ankle. I think it will be fine. He has a week in Girona, I think it will be good to go there a week later.”
Tumy Onasanya, the 21-year-old, faced what must be the biggest possible Champions Cup debut to imagine a loose head in front of the close 50-stone tighthead axis Uini Atonio and Will Skelton. Sale’s scrum was scrambled at the back a few times, but they also won a couple of tackles with Onasanya that lasted 80 minutes.
No one brought more to the fight than scrum-half Gus Warr who wanted to pick a fight with both Atonio and Skelton, sometimes at the same time, which was a bit like a demented honey badger chasing a pack of lions. .
That feistiness could not stop Sale falling into a 30-0 hole from which they failed to recover. Playing into a fair share of Storm Isha, Sale opted to keep the ball in hand in the first half. Part of it was to make great rugby. In the early moments, Arron Reed put in a high ball, cutting in the field just in front of the La Rochelle kick chase to take advantage of the off-balance Du Preez who seemed to make his way through three tackles. Sam James then made a superb offload at the back of the hand but Warr’s potential scoring pass to Tom Roebuck was deflected, some would say hit by Levani Botia. Roebuck collected the loose ball but was a finger away from the ground and referee Chris Busby ruled that any tackle was unintentional.
Sale’s bad luck continued when Du Preez’s kick was cut down by converted La Rochelle centre-back Yoan Tanga, and the ball fell kindly for Dillyn Leyds to get to the top and beat the cover.
The principle of running the ball out of the 22 against a gale was challenged as Sale ran straight into the army of an even more powerful storm in the form of Botia, the sport’s biggest jackaller and France captain. . Gregory Alldritt. Kicking beautifully in the conditions, Antoine Hastoy kicked three penalties, two from turnovers, to give La Rochelle a 16-0 half-time advantage.
With the wind behind them that was not an insurmountable lead for Sale to overcome but it soon became that way. With Sale attacking deep in the La Rochelle 22 that man Botia went over a prone ball carrier and the turnover attack was underway. UJ Seuteni led the breakaway and fed Hastoy, who showed impressive pace for the score. Botia then came on the wing to initiate another attack which was finished off by scrum-half Tawera Kerr-Barlow. Game over.
“There were huge swings, we’re down 22 and they ended up scoring down the other end,” Sanderson said. “It blows the scoreline, which I don’t think is a fair reflection of how competitive the game was. I felt we matched them on the game, probably showed more effort in attack, maybe outplayed them, which created some easy scoring opportunities. We awarded them a lot of points. A lot of what we did went as planned, but there was no mistake, a couple of turnovers in the 22 and you’re back under your own stick, it’s the pressure.”
There were plenty of capitulations in this tournament but Sale was determined not to wave the white flag. Both Roebuck and Reed tried to disallow the legs in contact before Roebuck finally crossed in the corner. After both Hastoy and Brice Dulin were sent to the penalty box, Agustin Creevy scored from a free kick, although Ford immediately threw an interception to Seuteni. With the game now gone, Sam Dugdale and Telusa Veainu crossed for a bonus point score and a measure of pride.
