Sale Sharks ………………… 40pts
Tries: Curry 2, Nayacalevu 8, 36; R du Preez 28, Quirke 60, Van Rhyn 72
Conversions: Ford 2, 9, 29, 37; du Preez 73
Newcastle Falcons……. 39pts
Tries: Brown 14, Stuart 19, Byrne 48, Elliott 58, Pepper 74, Radwan 80 Conversions: Connon 20, 80+1; Wilkinson 49
Penalty: Connon 34
The past met the future at Sale Sharks’ ancestral home Heywood Road, where international star Waisea Nayacalevu scored a double to help claim the spoils for his new side against Newcastle Falcons in an end-to-end battle that went right to the wire.
Twenty-five years ago, Sale first played as ‘the Sharks’ in a win against Wasps that featured a certain Steve Diamond playing for the Manchester side.
Now as the Falcons Director of Rugby, the match represented Diamond’s only chance to view his players against any opposition during pre-season, and with the start of the season rapidly approaching, he must have been encouraged with his side’s gutsy performance.
Sale head coach Alex Sanderson, who also played in that inaugural fixture, picked a virtually full-strength side, featuring the Curry brothers fresh from England duty, and Fijian captain Naya-calevu, perhaps the marquee signing across the Premiership.
Off the back of a disappointing loss against Connacht, Sale began quickly, building a tidy attack that saw captain Ben Curry score after a break from Joe Carpenter. The Sale faithful were then brought to their feet by Nayacalevu, who cut a fantastic angle off a lineout play to go over virtually untouched. With George Ford marshalling the Sale backline, only a brave tackle by Sam Stuart prevented another score.
However, Newcastle responded with a 15-minute spell that will encourage Diamond in no small measure. After a fortuitous try by full-back Louis Brown, winger Alex Hear-le showed scorching speed to cut through the Sale defence before feeding Stuart to dot down.
A scrappy remainder of the first half was punctuated by two perfectly timed scoring passes from Ford, firstly feeding Rob du Preez, and then Nayacalevu, the big Fijian this time demonstrating his raw power to crash over.
Eight minutes into the second half, replacement Falcons hooker Bryan Byrne barrelled over, keeping the Falcons in touch with the home team. Diamond’s side refused to lie down, chasing every ball with determination, before crackling into life with a fantastic try finished by James Elliott, after a typically electric Adam Radwan break.
Sale did respond with tries for Raffi Quirke and Ernst van Rhyn, but the Falcons had the last words, with replacement back Max Pepper finishing after turnover ball and then Radwan flying into the corner.
So in spite of Sanderson managing to put one over his old team-mate Diamond at a place steeped in Sale blue, the Falcons will ride into the opening weekend of Premiership games knowing that when they get it right, they can seriously fly high.
TEAMS
SALE: Carpenter, Roebuck, Nayacalevu, R Du Preez, O’Flaherty, Ford, Warr, Rodd, Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, Van Rhyn, Andrews, T Curry, B Curry (c), JL du Preez Replacements: Caine, McIntyre, Harper, Bamber, Burrow, Dugdale, Birch, Quirke, Curtis, Ma’asi-White, Addison, Reed, James
NEWCASTLE: Brown, Metcalf, Spencer, Hutchison, Hearle, Connon (c), Stuart, De Bruin, Fletcher, McCallum, Scott, Hawkins, Tiffen, Bainbridge, Lockwood Replacements: Obatoyinbo, Radwan, Doherty, Arnold, Stevenson, Wilkinson, Elliott, Brocklebank, Blamire, Palframan, Kelly, McDonald, Neild, Gordon, Chick, Byrne, Rewcastle, Van der Walt, O’Sullivan, Pepper, Leather-barrow, Davis
Referee: Michael Hudson
