SALE coach Steve Diamond, mindful that a win is a win, chose to accentuate the positive after a mixed performance.
“We came out of the blocks pretty well,” he said. “We worked on cooling their enthusiasm because everyone’s making a fresh start and they are a massive team. We did that really well and we raced into a lead, but we couldn’t build on it.

MATCH STATS...
SALE: L James 7; Solomona 6 (Yarde 66, 6), S James 6, J V Rensburg 8.5, Hammersley 7; MacGinty 7.5 (R du Preez 61, 6), De Klerk 7 (Cliff 61, 6); Morozov 7 (Rodd 59, 6), Van der Merwe 7 (Langdon...