Visitors Sale away with the win in tight battle

Darlington MP …….34 Sale FC ………………..38

By BILL JENKINS

SALE FC edged out hosts Darlington in the narrowest of contests.

The visitors were quick out of the blocks, scoring three tries within 16 minutes.

First, Josh Brown dotted down and then

Fergus Mulchrone broke the defence, before Mark Dixon finished well, with two of the three converted by James Robins.

Mowden rang the changes, bringing on Oscar Usher and Reuben Parsons in the pack, and that made an immediate impact, with Usher taking a strong carry, and offloading to Parsons to set Yaree Fantini away.

Usher finished a fine team try which Josh Ree converted, and Mowden continued their rally, and Liam Checksfield broke away to score in the corner, taking the score to 12-19.

They continued to press and eventually scored a penalty through Ree to make it 15-19 at the break.

It was Sale who came out firing in the second half with tries from Brown and Dixon which were both converted.

The end-to-end nature continued with Mowden pressing to the line and got their reward with Usher offloading to Fantini, and followed this up with a further try from Jacob Oliver, converted by Harry Read after replacing Ree.

Sale then scored through Obi Ene, with Callum Mackenzie grabbing a late consolation try.