MacGinty kicks Sale Sharks to thrilling 25-23 win over Scarlets

Sale Sharks 25-23 Scarlets, AJ Bell Stadium
Scorecard

Fly-half AJ MacGinty kicked a penalty in the closing stages as Sale Sharks managed to edge out Scarlets with a 25-23 win at AJ Bell Stadium in the European Champions Cup clash on Saturday.

Both teams failed to make the cut for the quarter-finals but Sale Sharks will be relieved to end their 10-match losing streak spread across all the competitions.

Wing Paolo Odogwu crossed over in the 10th minute sandwiched across two penalties from MacGinty. Centre Will Addison extended Sale Sharks lead to 16 points when he strolled past the post in the 27th minute.

However, Scarlets made a strong comeback in the final 10 minutes of the first half through a 39th minute try from DTH van der Merwe and a conversion and penalty from fly-half Dan Jones. Steve Diamond's men managed a slender six-point lead heading into the second half.

After both fly-halves exchanged penalties in the second half, MacGinty extended Sale Sharks lead to nine points with another three-pointer in the 60th minute.

However, the home team were pegged back when Magnus Lund was sin-binned in the 63rd minute and to make things worse, a penalty try was awarded to the visitors as well.

Jones continued his good form and kicked a conversion and another penalty to take Scarlets to one-point lead. With four minutes to go in the game, MacGinty held his nerve and kicked his fifth successful penalty to ensure a two-point win for Sale Sharks.