Sale claim vital win

Charlie Hodgson
12 April 2012

Sale gave themselves breathing space at the bottom of the Guinness Premiership as they saw off basement side Worcester 17-3 in the crucial relegation scrap at Edgeley Park.

The win moves the Sharks six points clear of the bottom of the table but Worcester now face a real battle to hold on to the top-flight status they have held since 2004.

The Sharks led 9-0 at the break thanks to a penalty and two drop goals from Charlie Hodgson. Fly-half Willie Walker eventually got the visitors on the board with a penalty but it was not enough for Mike Ruddock's side as Hodgson added another penalty and wing Mark Cueto crossed for a try to seal the victory.

Hodgson missed an early chance to give the home side the lead when he pushed a 45-metre penalty to the right of the posts in the ninth minute.

The Warriors looked to keep ball in hand and some powerful carries from flanker Tom Wood and lock Craig Gillies got them to within metres of the Sale line and it took a magnificent tackle from Tait to snuff out a promising attack.

The lack of confidence of both sides was making for a scrappy spectacle but Hodgson did at least get the scoreboard ticking with a 28th minute penalty after Sale had stolen a ball at the lineout.

Tait then made a superb break as he eased round Worcester second row Greg Rawlinson and, although that attack ground to a halt, Hodgson made sure the Sharks got some points with a close-range drop goal.

Scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth then sparked a Sale counter-attack after the visitors were turned over and Hodgson again took the option to put points on the board with his second drop goal 90 seconds before half-time.

Worcester looked to get back in the game straight from the restart as scrum-half Jonny Arr broke into the 22, but prop Adam Black was stopped inches short. Rico Gear then launched another attack and the Warriors finally scored through a Walker penalty.

Hodgson kicked his second penalty in the 64th minute before a wonderful break from Tait, by far the brightest attacking spark on the field, set up the crucial try. The centre shimmied through a statuesque defence and, after he found Hodgson in support, Cueto barrelled over in the corner.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in