SALE have not been afraid of boasting about their production line of academy talent over the last few years and they showed why at Sixways on Friday.
Several teenagers took to the field at Worcester, including 17-year-old Cameron Redpath, and showed remarkable maturity to withstand a second half Warriors’ onslaught.
After being 21-7 behind at the interval, the hosts began the second period impressively but struggled to penetrate the Salfordbased outfit’s stout defence.
A fortuitous bounce, which landed kindly for schoolboy Ollie Lawrence, enabled the Premiership basement- dwellers to get back into the contest, but Steve Diamond’s side secured the win via AJ MacGinty’s penalty.
“To have seven debutants on the field and two of the youngest ever, is a credit to the academy staff at the club, and none of them looked out of place,” Sharks’ coach Paul Deacon said.
Sale’s emotions were very much in contrast to the Warriors, who endured another frustrating evening.
They needed to find some confidence having suffered a wretched run of form and Sam Vesty – taking charge of the squad in the Anglo-Welsh competition – opted for a mixture of youth and experience.
Bryce Heem, Nick Schonert, Tom Heathcote and Darren Barry provided the know-how while Will Butler, Huw Taylor and Tom Dodd added plenty of exuberance, but a new side only yielded the same result as their frailties were again exposed.
CLOSE-UP
WILL BUTLER Worcester centre
CAMERON REDPATH Sale centre
Redpath, making his debut at 17, acquitted himself extremely well, looking at ease at senior level. He made a couple of breaks, showed deft hands and displayed a good passing range.
Butler, skippering the side for the first time, also did some good things for Worcester but, despite having more ball to work with, struggled to make as much impact as his opposite number.
The set-piece, particularly in the second half, failed to offer a stable platform and the defence – a constant area of concern this season – allowed the opposition to stretch their legs.
To compound Worcester’s disappointment, they dominated much of the contest and created plenty of opportunities, but those chances were regularly spurned.
On his return, Heem looked especially sharp and tore into an inexperienced Sharks’ outfit, but there were knock-ons aplenty and it halted their momentum.
Sale were not much better at times, producing mistakes which were symptomatic of a frustrating game, but they were far more clinical.
They scored three times in the opening period with Will Cliff and Ben Curry in particular showing their range of skills.
Cliff and half-back partner MacGinty dictated proceedings and, following a period of pressure in the Midlanders’ 22, TJ Ioane touched down from a maul.
Vesty’s team hit back through a well-worked Michael Dowsett score but the Cliff-Curry duo soon took command. The ubiquitous flanker created the Sharks’ second try, breaking the line and finding his scrum-half, before the same players combined for the back-rower to score.
Worcester improved after the break, getting over the line via Lawrence and a late Tom Howe effort, but MacGinty’s penalty four minutes from time ultimately clinched the win for Sale, much to the annoyance of the Worcester faithful.
Deacon: Bryce in different class
SALE coach Paul Deacon was delighted by his young team’s resilience.
Worcester had most of the ball but the visitors continuously managed to disrupt their opponents at the lineout and in the tackle.
“Defensively, we were outstanding,” Deacon said. “Bryce Heem was a different class tonight, every time he touched the ball he looked like he would create something, but our spacing around the ruck and work for each other, they certainly delivered on that.”
Worcester’s Sam Vesty echoed Deacon’s comments about Heem.
“If we had managed to get the ball into the backs, Bryce was looking very strong and very sharp out there,” he said. “He plays well when he has a smile on his face and he looked like he was having some fun in the wide channels. He was causing havoc.”
“There was some good, positive stuff but we then didn’t take our opportunities in that second half. You lose the set-piece and you release the pressure valve, and we let that happen far too many times.”
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