By JOHN EVERTON

HISTORY repeated itself in Saint Affrique as Sale again beat Castres in a pre-season match, but this was totally different from last year’s encounter in Rodez.
This ‘match amicale’ was a highly combative game, with international referee Romain Poite kept busy awarding a stream of penalties, three yellow cards and three red – two to Sharks’ Chris Ashton and Alexandru Tarus. And there was a penalty try to throw into the mix.
Early stoppages were numerous as the pinkshirted official made regular use of his whistle.
There was no scoring for 16 min...