Northampton Saints U18s battled testing conditions as Storm Boelo blew through as they put Sale to the sword in an excellent 19-41 victory at Lymm RFC.
A first-half brace from Charlie King, as well as tries from Jeremiah German and Toby Seaman, saw Saints go into the break with a comfortable lead.
Saints came back out for the second period and stretched their lead through captain Seb Dare. Sale had one back, but two more from Dominic Ateba and Fin Shields secured the victory despite Sale crossing in the closing stages.
On the victory, U18s defence coach Charles Rylands said: “The lads did really well in testing conditions. As coaches, we challenged the boys on their energy and work rate, and I feel like they did that really well today.
“It wasn’t an easy game after such a long time away and not much preparation time, but they really stood up and performed well.”
First half:
In the early excursions with the wind behind the Sharks’ backs, Sale dominated possession with German sent to the bin in the early minutes for a deliberate knock on. Despite their possession, they struggled to capitalise on their player advantage, with the conditions hindering any attacking flow.
With German returning to the field, Saints struck first on the scoreboard. Following a nice breakout of Saints’ own 22 from Ollie Jones, he set German free on the outside to run it in.
Almost straight from the kick off, Saints launched once again, this time an excellent solo effort from King allowed him to slice his way through the would-be defenders for the score.
Sale eventually got on the board after a kick to the corner allowed them to crash over through the rolling maul. But Saints remained patient with the ball in hand and came away from their first sustained attacking pressure inside the Sale 22 with another try as Seaman crashed over.
The young men in Black, Green and Gold entered the break with one more score on the board after a chip in behind from Shields was gathered by Henry Bailey, who was tap tackled but managed to get the offload away to King, who walked it in.
Second half:
As the wind picked up following the halftime break, Sale were struggling to exit their own 22, with Saints exerting pressure. Eventually, a charge-down gave Northampton possession, and Dare crashed over from close range.
The hosts hit back after the Saints' ill-discipline gave Sale easy entry into the 22, and they went through the phases inside the red zone until the ball was shipped out wide to the winger, who went in at the corner.
Saints’ next score came from some brilliant quick thinking from replacement scrumhalf Ateba, who took a quick tap from the middle of the park off a free-kick and stepped his way past multiple defenders to dive in at the corner.
Northampton had found their attacking groove and were ripping holes through the Sharks' defence, with Shields finishing off another for the Black, Green and Gold under the posts.
The hosts weren’t giving up and once again went in under the sticks after the Saints’ ruck edge defence was caught unaware, but it was to be the final act of the game as Saints came away from their trip north with the victory.
Line ups:
Sale U18s- 15 Evan Oxley, 14 Gabe McGrath, 13 Tomow Barton, 12 Finn Grocock, 11 Seb Clarke, 10, Tom Gaffey, 9 Joe Foulds; 1 Ferg Hayles, 2 Jack Kelso, 3 Will James, 4 James Patterson, 5 Lorenz D’avanzo, 6 Harry Sephton, 7 Jayden Suffell (c), 8 Henry Bates.
Replacements: 16 Ben Rosenthal, 17 Fred Manning, 18 Keane Hoyes, 19 Ben Probert 20 Jack Hughes, 21 Jack Bowbeer, 22 Archie Ramsay, 23 Tom Hackett.
Saints U18s- 15 Henry Bailey, 14 Jeremiah German, 13 Will Catley, 12 Oliver Jones, 11 Charlie King, 10 Fin Shields, 9 George Grewcock; 1 Toby Seaman, 2 Charlie Utting, 3 Ben Jones, 4 Seb Dare (c), 5 James Peasley, 6 Carter Wright, 7 Harry Nath, 8 Harrison Denee.
Replacements: 16 Basil Anstee, 17 Hal McLanaghan, 18 Rupert Kiy, 19 Archie McHarg, 21 Dominic Ateba, 22 Felix Jacobs, 23 Selorm Agroh.
Immediately following the U18s fixture, Northampton Saints U17s played a friendly fixture against Sale Sharks U17s and despite tries from Archie Doe, Kiran Chimangah, Vincent Rogers, Charlie Brazier and Charlie Hearn, the hosts came away with a 47-27 victory.