Roebuck helps Sale to bonus-point win over Saints

Salford Community Stadium, Gallagher Premiership

Sale (17) 27

O’Flaherty, Roebuck, and Rodd Cons: Ford 2 Pens: Ford

Northampton (12) 24

Sale Sharks moved up to fourth in the Premiership after a bonus-point victory over Northampton Saints in Salford with the help of two tries from England winger Tom Roebuck.

After his opposite winger Tom O’Flaherty crossed for the night’s opening try, Roebuck scored twice in a helter-skelter first half.

Emmanuel Iyogun and Tommy Freeman scored tries for Saints, who were briefly reduced to 13 men.

With a brilliant individual try just after half-time, number eight Henry Pollock’s try put Northampton at 17-17.

In what is now a five-way battle for the final two play-off spots, Sale moved up the table after winning.

After falling to their eighth defeat of the season, Northampton’s title defense seems to have come to an end. With only five games left, they are now eighth in the table, nine points behind the top four.

After O’Flaherty spun out of a tackle and scored Sale’s first try superbly in the right corner, the team had a nightmare opening.

After Sale broke down the right, Freeman was also yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on just three minutes later.

O’Flaherty’s kick into the left channel quickly led to Roebuck running in from inside.

However, with 13 men present, a quick tap penalty gave Pollock the opportunity to head into Northampton’s 22-man field, and two passes later, Iyogun hit the left corner.

However, Saints responded once more when Freeman received a clean line-out ball and flew over to Jean-Luc du Preez.

As Saints broke up the left, Ford received a sin-binned for a high tackle on Burger Odendaal shortly after receiving his first yellow card in 11 years.

As they entered the second-half, Saints were 17-12 up, but Pollock ran it back, broke two tackles, chipped over the covering defense, and found a kind bounce to bring Saints level.

Rodd scored from the back of a driving maul to give Sale a second chance as he made his 100th appearance, and Ford extended the lead from the tee as the game started to wane.

Director of rugby for Sale Sharks, Alex Sanderson, stated:

“Northampton showed why they’re a champion side, despite my belief that we were good for the win.”

When you give them small sniffs, like we did, they don’t tire out and don’t give up.

They capitalized on our exertion because they were very effective on the front foot with a little quick ball, and we put the pressure back on ourselves.

Realistically, to finish in the top four, we must win five of our previous seven games and earn bonus points.

“You must win your home games in order to win,” and I thought our attacking strategy was brilliant tonight. It’s a good step to make 27 points against a Northamptonian team.

Phil Dowson, Northampton’s rugby director, stated to BBC Radio Northampton: “

“We really couldn’t get going,” he said. We struggled to get any flow in the second half because it was a stop-start.

Tom James [filling in at 10] was excellent and up for the challenge, and we attempted to make it special for him, but we were unable to do so.

Sin-bin: Ford (36).

McElroy, McIntyre, John, Andrews, Dugdale, Thomas, Addison, Reed, and others.

Northampton: Ramm, Freeman, Odendaal, Dingwall (c), Hendy, James, Mitchell, Iyogun, Langdon, Davison, Munga, Coles, Kemeny, Scott-Young, Pollock.

Sin-bin: James (9), Freeman (13).

Walker, Haffar, Green, Mayanavnaua, Augustus, Pearson, Weimann, and Litchfield as replacements.