Saints have a shocker as Sale come alive

Sale Sharks 20-7 Northampton Saints

It was a reasonably bright start for the Saints as they got an early penalty, allowing Myler to kick to touch. Saints then put on a minute's worth of persistent pressure, but after 3 minutes were penalised for holding on. This is where the match completely turned around.

There was a whole host of penalties given to Sale in the next 10 to 15 minutes, two of which were knocked through the posts by Cipriani, as Saints played some frankly terrible rugby and Sale played some very clever rugby. The score after 13 minutes was 6-0 to Sale.

Sale continued to put massive pressure on Saints, almost scoring twice, but both efforts were deemed to be help up as Saints put in some good defensive efforts. However, after staying down in the Saints half for a further 15 minutes, the Sale pressure eventually paid off as a yellow card was given to Dickinson and they crashed over to score a try through Eifion Lewis-Roberts after 30 minutes. The Cipriani conversion made it 13-0. 

The next 10 minutes consisted of more Sale pressure and yet more Saints errors until the ball was kicked out, ending a truly awful half of rugby for the Saints and a bright half for Sale, leaving the score at 13-0. 

The second half continued in much the same way as the first, with Sale coming on and continuing to apply pressure. A penalty to Sale after 46 minutes put them back to within the try line, but some great Saints defence garnered them a turnover. Saints then seemed to wake up a bit, and two penalties were awarded to them. However, Myler missed the posts for the second penalty, leaving the score at 13-0.

Sale then came back into it, and a yellow card for Clark allowed Sale to get a penalty and again kick to touch. Braid then crashed over for the try after 60 minutes, and the score was 20-0 after the conversion. The match then seemed to take another turn as Saints finally produced some good rugby to score a try through Harrison on 65 minutes. The score was 20-7 after Myler converted. It was all Saints for pretty much the rest of the game, as Saints pushed to at least get a losing bonus point. But they just weren't good enough, and Sale's excellent defence stopped Saints from really getting anywhere near the line.

A knock-on in the 80th minute of the match by a Saints hand signaled the end of the match, with the final score being 20-7 to Sale. 

Teams

Sale Sharks: Haley (15); Addison (14); Leota (13); Tuitupou (12); Cueto (11); Cipriani (10); Cusiter (9); Lewis-Roberts (1); Jones (2); Cobilas (3); Hines (4); Mills (5); Braid - capt. (6); Lund (7); Beaumont (8). Replacements: Neild (16); de Marchi (17); Harrison (18); Ioane (19); Seymour (20); Cliff (21); Macleod (22); Arscott (23).

Northampton Saints: Foden (15); Elliot (14); G. Pisi (13); Burrell (12); North (11); Myler (10); Dickson (9); Corbisiero (1); Haywood (2); Ma'afu (3); Dickinson (4); Clark (5); Wood - capt. (6); Nutley (7); Dowdon (8). Replacements - Williams (16); Waller (17); Denman (18); Onojaife (19); Harrison (20); Hodgson (21); Wilson (22); K Pisi (23).