Sale Sharks 37 Harlequins 31
SALFORD COMMUNITY STADIUM — Sale Sharks edged Harlequins in a play-off chasing clash on Sunday afternoon that certainly lived up to the pre-match hype.
Plenty was made about the individual head-to-heads, particularly the battle of the No 10s, George Ford and Marcus Smith.
It was a treat to be in Salford under blue-ish skies and see how two of the three candidates to boss England’s backline – the other is Northampton Saints’s 21-year-old Fin Smith, while Owen Farrell is off limits and heading to French rugby next season – handled themselves and their teams’ differing game plans.
The word just before this year’s Six Nations was that England’s head coach, Steve Borthwick, was intending to give Harlequins’ Smith a run, then the floppy-haired one was injured in a training camp in Spain, and in came Ford, the 31-year-old starting all five matches while Smith the Saint stayed on the bench. Borthwick’s next selection will be made for a tour to Japan and New Zealand this summer.
To say Ford slotted into a 10-man style here would be a slight on Sale, whose back three of Joe Carpenter, Arron Reed and Tom Roebuck have youth and pace and love a bit of width. But Harlequins have cornered the reputation for giving it a lash, based around Smith, and it was seen in their remarkable European win away to Bordeaux Begles a week ago.
Smith was at it early, with a show-and-go, a dummy and a hoof from his 22, but it merely invited a Sale counter-attack, with Quins’ defence not ready for the transition , and Sam Dugdale scored.
Smith’s weak spot in his kicking game was conquered in that match, but did not feature much here. The midfield kicking could have been better. The other bone of contention for both fly-halves will always be a lack of size, and Smith defended wide on occasions, mindful of Manu Tuilagi heading his way.
Meanwhile, Ford threw one full-body smash into dealing with Andre Esterhuizen.
If there are any soft-ish shoulders, they are made up for by abundant other qualities. Smith is top of the Champions Cup rankings for line-break assists this season; an example came in the 29th minute as he reached to turn an average pass into a good one, and did not lose momentum, enabling the release of the running No 8, Alex Dombrandt.
This was during a becalmed phase for Sale after their early 15-0 lead, as they struggled to get change out of the breakdown.
“We were in the tumble dryer,” as Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson, put it.
Ford paced the backfield, confined to chivvying, and a 20-metre pass off Smith’s left hand helped Louis Lynagh in for his second try in 12 minutes, to make it 15-10.
Ford plays short-back-and-sides rugby: size up the situation, snap the pass, go again. In England’s World Cup win over Argentina last September, he achieved victory through efficiency. Now, a lovely long pass to Ben Curry was batted down for Reed to go into the corner.
And while both Ford and Smith are way outside the top-10 percentage goal-kickers in the Premiership, in the 60s, Ford nailed this touchline conversion for 22-10 at half-time.
Chandler Cunningham-South, Quins’ thrusting young England flanker, was being watched closely as “shark-bait”, in Sanderson’s words, and Smith had to be patient, waiting for quick ball. As he ran back from converting Oscar Beard’s 57th- minute try, he made a fist-pump and shouted for more. So much for that.
Within a minute, Sale were in again, through Raffi Quirke, when Esterhuizen got charged down.
Entering the final quarter, Ford built the pressure. He dabbed a calm half-punt into touch in the Quins’ 22. Flat passes by him and Rob du Preez put Reed in again: 37-24. Smith came back with a kick-pass to Esterhuizen but Tyrone Green knocked on. Ford, still calm, made a nicely delayed pass to Ben Bamber, but soon Luke Northmore was in to score Quins’ fifth try.
Sale had five points to Quins’ two and, at the end, Ford and Smith shared a chat and a handshake, aware of the wider debate that will go on.
