Match Centre: Sale Sharks 29-22 Northampton Saints

Sale Sharks 29-22 Northampton Saints, Salford City Stadium

Sale Sharks managed a late surge from Northampton Saints as they sealed a 29-22 win in the Gallagher Premiership opener at Salford City Stadium on Sunday.

The early exchanges saw new signing Lukhan Salakaia-Loto striking Ben Curry, who had to leave the field in the first minute. A James Grayson penalty kick in the third minute got the Saints off the mark.

The response from Sale Sharks came in the 11th minute as Dan du Preez burst through a gap and found Gus Warr outside him with the latter crossing over and Robert du Preez kicked the conversion to make it 7-3.

The Saints were reduced to 14 players temporarily with Courtnall Skosan sin-binned after making contact with Tom Roebuck chasing his own kick and a penalty shot from Rob du Preez at the stroke of half time ensured Sale went into the break with a 10-3 lead.

Both the teams were desperate for a breakthrough in the second half which eventually came in the 55th minute before Luke James collected a wide pass to score and two minutes later Sam James and Roebuck combined down the blind side to send the former over the whitewash to make it 24-3.

The bonus point for Sale came in the 61st minute as Luke James’ inch-perfect grubber-kick allowed Tom O’Flaherty to score but Rob du Preez missed out on the conversion to make it 29-3.

Just as the Saints looked down and out, Tom Collins went past the defence of Sale to dive in the corner in the 65th minute and later a well timed pass from Petch found Ollie Sleightholme on his way over the line as the scoreline became 29-17 heading into the final 10 minutes.

Sale did well to keep Northampton on hold for most of the final phase but eventually Collins with his second in the final minute helped the visitors claim a bonus point.

Team line up:

Sale Sharks: L. James; Roebuck, S. James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R. Du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, Van der Merwe, Schonert, Wiese, Postlethwaite, JL Du Preez, Curry (c), D. Du Preez

Reserves: Taylor, Harrison, Oosthuizen, Beaumont, Ross, Simpson, Curtis, Reed

Northampton Saints: Collins; Sleightholme, Proctor, Dingwall, Skosan; Grayson, Mitchell; Waller, Haywood, Hill, Salakaia-Loto, Coles, Scott-Young, Augustus

Reserves: Matavesi, Iyogun, Petch, Moon, Graham, James, Litchfield, Furbank