Northampton Saints sealed their first league victory at Sale Sharks since 2017, as they ran in seven tries at the CorpAcq Stadium to return to the top of the Gallagher PREM after Round 10.
Saints shot out to an early lead as first Tommy Freeman and then Rory Hutchinson crossed in the first 15 minutes, but Sale hit back with a brace of their own meaning the teams entered the sheds with just four points between them.
An all-action second half saw the lead change six times as the sides battled it out, but a further five scores for Saints – from Robbie Smith, Edoardo Todaro, Josh Kemeny, Alex Coles and Henry Pollock – saw the men in Black, Green and Gold pull away and take a full five points from Salford.
FIRST HALF
Swirling winds and biting cold awaited Northampton in Salford, but the weather did not seem to bother the away side early on, as Saints’ pressure set Josh Kemeny free in Sale’s 22 before a jinking Alex Mitchell opened up space for Freeman to slip through for Saints’ first.
Sale returned Northampton’s pressure with some of their own but when a series of handling errors halted their progress, Saints capitalised – attacking the fringes to get the ball wide on the left, where Hutchinson was the last man to round the corner for the score.
Two Anthony Belleau conversions made it 0-14, but this time a series of penalties went against Saints, giving Sale their first real platform in the match. The home side crept up the pitch before Raffi Quirke sniped over, with George Ford adding the conversion to bring the deficit to seven points.
Sale found themselves down to 14 men after half an hour, when Tom Curry was shown a yellow card for making contact with Kemeny’s head in a tackle.
Saints couldn’t make the most of their extra man before the break, however, and a further string of penalties against them gave Ford the opportunity to add three points to Sale’s tally with a well-struck penalty.
SECOND HALF:
Saints emerged from the break 10-14 ahead, but the home side came out firing and stretched ahead after just a minute – sending Joe Carpenter over after regathering their own restart.
The lead swung back Northampton’s way five minutes later when Saints patiently built the phases, before hooker Smith burrowed his way over under a pile of bodies for his side’s third.
Another switch in lead came not long after, when a mismatch in defence allowed Rekeiti Ma’asi-White to slice through Saints’ line, with Tom O’Flaherty on his shoulder to take the offload.
Ford’s conversion put Sale one point in front, but Saints scored the try of the match moments later to pull ahead once more. Mitchell gathered a high ball deep inside Saints’ half and took the ball right to the line before tipping it onto replacement fullback George Furbank. The England back came screaming through Sharks’ defence and got the offload away to Todaro on the right to seal the try bonus point.
The to-and-fro contest continued and the home side pushed ahead again, with their own bonus-point try as Rob du Preez sent a looping pass over to O’Flaherty for his second and Sale’s fourth.
The lead was short-lived though after another sensational Saints effort. Callum Chick slipped through Sale’s line and went sprinting forwards before finding Mitchell on his shoulder. The scrum-half danced into Sharks’ 22 before popping the ball back up to Chick, who in turn found Kemeny outside him.
Belleau’s conversion went just wide in the high winds and sent the match into its final quarter with the scoreline 29-31 in Saints’ favour. Northampton thought they’d scored again which Chick made it over the whitewash from close range after a period of pressure, but the No.8 was deemed to be held up.
Saints did eventually get their score with five minutes to go, more pressure from close range saw them close before Coles stretched over. And the away side would close out the match in some style – when Freeman pounced on loose ball, hacking it onto a charging Pollock, with the replacement back row racing in for a diving finish.
Furbank’s conversion made it 29-43 and Saints retained possession as the clock ran down and Furbank sent the ball into the stands to end the match.
Saints take a break from league action for the next two months, with the PREM Rugby Cup making a return as Northampton first take on Leicester Tigers next Saturday 31 January (kick-off: 3.05pm).
LINE-UPS:
SALE: 15 Carpenter, 14 O’Flaherty, 13 du Preez, 12 Ma’asi-White, 11 Wills, 10 Ford, 9 Quirke; 1 Rodd, 2 Jibulu, 3 Harper, 4 van Rhyn, 5 Bamber, 6 Vermeulen, 7 Dugdale, 8 Curry.
Replacements: 16 Caine, 17 McIntyre, 18 Bell, 19 Burrow, 20 Gilmore, 21 Warr, 22 Louw, 23 Reed.
SAINTS: 15 Hendy, 14 Freeman, 13 Hutchinson , 12 Dingwall (c), 11 Todaro, 10 Belleau, 9 Mitchell; 1 Iyogun, 2 R Smith, 3 Davison, 4 Coles, 5 Van Der Mescht, 6 Kemeny, 7 Pearson, 8 Chick.
Replacements: 16 Wright, 17 Fischetti, 18 Millar Mills, 19 Prowse, 20 Lockett, 21 Pollock, 22 McParland, 23 Furbank.