[DavenportSharky]

Hints at Hill starting. Waisea is available but was not considered v Tigers due to injury.

It may just be me but these press conferences seem to take 20 minutes when they could take 5 minutes if you eliminate the waffle.

[DavenportSharky]

Ref Craig Evans of Wales

[DavenportSharky]

Odds to win

Sale 3/7
Racing 92 11/4
Draw 25-1

[RinTin]

I think he'll go 12/13 of LJ/ Nayacelevu.

The best game of any of ours 12's this year was Luke vs Tigers, and Naya is used to playing Racing having done so twice a year for a long time. Also useful to have Naya in the team given Tuisova will likely be at 12 for Racing and Habosi or Naituvi will be on the wings. Naya will know how they play.

Sam vs Luke will be a good duel if they both play. Sam didn't play for Racing last week with Fickou the starting 13.

[Olyy]

https://x.com/SaleSharksRugby/status/18 ... 3189864804

Like the team
Rare appearance for WGJ
Bamber and Hill in the row is going to get confusing, they're as identical as the Du Preez twins are

[DavenportSharky]

https://www.racing92.fr/article/sale-v- ... atch/38630

Sacre bleu
Zut Alors

[RinTin]

Our bench looks weak imo. I fear Harper will be steam rolled in the scrum and Flats hasn't played for a while. Ford will feel the pressure given the criticism he received over the autumn. Hopefully he responds well to it. Real lack of pace in our backline too.

No Ernst or Hyron surprises me. No Schonert still. Would have liked to see Ene on the bench ahead of Wills.

This is surely a must win game or we write off the Champions Cup right?

[RinTin]

https://www.salesharks.com/2024/12/12/t ... racing-92/

Would we be Sale without a crashing website and a (likely) incorrect first team announcement?

[Olyy]

https://x.com/racing92/status/1867192965778530379

Changed up, but strong Racing side,
Good to see SJ at 13!

[RinTin]

Will we finally get answer to the 3 season long question of who the better 13 is out of Rob and Sam?? Love that Sam is returning.

That backline is almost entirely second string, while the pack is about 50/50 first choice.

[Oh Danny Boy]

Our bench looks weak imo. I fear Harper will be steam rolled in the scrum and Flats hasn't played for a while. Ford will feel the pressure given the criticism he received over the autumn. Hopefully he responds well to it. Real lack of pace in our backline too.

No Ernst or Hyron surprises me. No Schonert still. Would have liked to see Ene on the bench ahead of Wills.

This is surely a must win game or we write off the Champions Cup right?

Being a realist, we're going to be in the Challenge Cup and, unlike last season, we should be in a position to give a good account of ourselves. Getting smashed by Ospreys in the first game was a season low for me, just awful

[RinTin]

Our bench looks weak imo. I fear Harper will be steam rolled in the scrum and Flats hasn't played for a while. Ford will feel the pressure given the criticism he received over the autumn. Hopefully he responds well to it. Real lack of pace in our backline too.

No Ernst or Hyron surprises me. No Schonert still. Would have liked to see Ene on the bench ahead of Wills.

This is surely a must win game or we write off the Champions Cup right?

Being a realist, we're going to be in the Challenge Cup and, unlike last season, we should be in a position to give a good account of ourselves. Getting smashed by Ospreys in the first game was a season low for me, just awful

I just have flashbacks to our loss away to Cardiff in April 2023. We were fully stacked, charging high in the prem only to have a Cardiff team who couldn't buy a win in the league beat us.

[Oh Danny Boy]

Our bench looks weak imo. I fear Harper will be steam rolled in the scrum and Flats hasn't played for a while. Ford will feel the pressure given the criticism he received over the autumn. Hopefully he responds well to it. Real lack of pace in our backline too.

No Ernst or Hyron surprises me. No Schonert still. Would have liked to see Ene on the bench ahead of Wills.

This is surely a must win game or we write off the Champions Cup right?

Being a realist, we're going to be in the Challenge Cup and, unlike last season, we should be in a position to give a good account of ourselves. Getting smashed by Ospreys in the first game was a season low for me, just awful

I just have flashbacks to our loss away to Cardiff in April 2023. We were fully stacked, charging high in the prem only to have a Cardiff team who couldn't buy a win in the league beat us.

100%, I find myself questioning Sanderson's "mind gym" remarks too many times in a season for comfort. There's probably a dedicated thread for discussing the coaching ticket but Sale are on paper a far better team than our results.

[dinogyro]

Would Eddie Jones' efforts be the opposite of Alex's? As Eddie's method seems to come in for some stick, with most commentators saying you need the emotional buy-in of the team.

[dinogyro]

Odds to win

Sale 3/7
Racing 92 11/4
Draw 25-1

I'm useless at betting. Who is favorite to win?

[Olyy]

Bet365 has us winning by 8pts, which feels...optimistic, imo

[dinogyro]

Bet365 has us winning by 8pts, which feels...optimistic, imo

Crikey! I'd take any sort of win.

[Yareet]

Rugby 4 Cast has a 27-21 win for us

[DoctorSharky]

It’s a largely second choice Racing team, and they’re inconsistent even at their best. Think we have to be winning this or serious questions .

I watch a lot of Racing and there are huge question marks over some of their starters, particularly in the backs. Lancaster is lucky to have a contract let alone be starting, and Chavancy and Tedder have seen better days. Similar for Chat and Woki in the forwards.

That said, Le Garrec is world class and Dayimani the type of 8 to cause havoc against our patchy defence. Spring and Arundell offer real separation pace too, we’ll badly miss Reed. Also worried about how Harper will fare against Gogichashvili..

[Narbia]

It’s a largely second choice Racing team...

Looks fairly full R92 strength to me, but I agree with you on the inconsistency bit.
Anyway, good luck Sale, I'll be watching.

[Halifaxshark]

Come on lads!!!

Big game for Luke James coming. I can feel it in my Guinness

[Halifaxshark]

It’s a largely second choice Racing team, and they’re inconsistent even at their best. Think we have to be winning this or serious questions .

I watch a lot of Racing and there are huge question marks over some of their starters, particularly in the backs. Lancaster is lucky to have a contract let alone be starting, and Chavancy and Tedder have seen better days. Similar for Chat and Woki in the forwards.

That said, Le Garrec is world class and Dayimani the type of 8 to cause havoc against our patchy defence. Spring and Arundell offer real separation pace too, we’ll badly miss Reed. Also worried about how Harper will fare against Gogichashvili..

Agree with all of this. However if Sale announced they had signed Camille Chat and Cameron Woki for next season I would be over the moon, but I get your point.

Le Garrec is brilliant.

[Olyy]

Harper off for a HIA, but looked bad so I'm guessing he won't be back
Hope WGJ's been hitting the cardio on his time off

Edit: Not a HIA, permanent change off the bat

[Olyy]

Not a very sympathetic referee,
Normally I'll happily call out our terrible discipline but some of these, especially at the ruck, could easily just be play on

[Olyy]

Ford's kicking has been dreadful, don't know if it's his knee or what but I think there's only been one, which Roebuck managed to slap back, that's been anything better than bad

Edit: Just as I say that he and Roebuck link for a lovely slapback again
Maybe he should just solely kick to Tom, and leave touchfinders/distance to Rob

[Olyy]

That was a really nice move

[DoctorSharky]

[quote=DoctorSharky post_id=70995 time=<a href="tel:1734105627" data-original-title="" title="">1734105627</a> user_id=1087]
It’s a largely second choice Racing team...

Looks fairly full R92 strength to me, but I agree with you on the inconsistency bit.
Anyway, good luck Sale, I'll be watching.[/quote]


Fickou, Tuisova, Habosi, Palu left at home plus Gibert, Naituvi and Diallo benched. Add to that their injuries (Farrell, Bamba, Taofifenua) and it’s definitely weakened (although they do rotate incessantly).

In any case, they’ve been poor for 38 minutes and we’ve been pretty good for 40. Should have enough to put the game to bed second half or serious questions to be asked..

[DavenportSharky]

Started raining. Reasonable crowd. Poor discipline. Excellent defence. Shame we conceded as another score and they would have given up. Looked like a good punch up. Seems strange watching Sam kicking left footed for touch. Harper did not look with it coming off. Ford struggling with kicks.

[Olyy]

What's the point in the TMO/touch judge if they can't see such a blatant change in bind and then collapse at a maul so close to the tryline

[Olyy]

Roebuck's a cheatcode when the ball is in the air, that was vveerryy nice

[Olyy]

We really have perfected the back-3 tap back to a second rower
Think that's the 4th we've hit tonight

[Yareet]

Started raining. Reasonable crowd. Poor discipline. Excellent defence. Shame we conceded as another score and they would have given up. Looked like a good punch up. Seems strange watching Sam kicking left footed for touch. Harper did not look with it coming off. Ford struggling with kicks.

Listening on the BBC radio and they’ve mentioned our defence loads of times. Horse effect or just Racing being dire?

[Olyy]

I know it was a heavily rotated Racing side but I never expected a result like that,

Really good performance - lineout the only real concern, hopefully just a bit of ring rust for Hill after so long out

Waisea must be wondering what he's done to deserve coming here, haha - we were flinging the ball around for 65mins, and then he comes on and we pretty much exclusively keep it in the forwards, don't think he touched the ball once

[Olyy]

Started raining. Reasonable crowd. Poor discipline. Excellent defence. Shame we conceded as another score and they would have given up. Looked like a good punch up. Seems strange watching Sam kicking left footed for touch. Harper did not look with it coming off. Ford struggling with kicks.

Listening on the BBC radio and they’ve mentioned our defence loads of times. Horse effect or just Racing being dire?

Bit of both,
We looked far more organised than in recent months, but Racing weren't up to much on attack in the backs, and couldn't catch a cold for large parts of the game

[Bucks1861]

Great win!

I wonder what would have happened if we’d have a fictionally lineout.

[dinogyro]

Or even a functioning one?

Well, Rob let the cat out of the bag in the post-match interview. Asked about the best thing of being with your brothers, he said 'seeing them every week, well for now' or something like that.

[DavenportSharky]

[DavenportSharky]

Ben Curry and hungry Sale Sharks pack overpower Racing 92

https://www.thetimes.com/article/c06617 ... f020357c58

[poyntonshark]

I don't wan tto be negative after such a good result, but I don't think it was a great performance. Had it's good parts obviously. But, I think overall we were better last week. Difference being last week we played top quality opposition at the top of their game who punished our weaknesses. This week, well, we didn't.

Did SamJ take a supply of Salford water over there with him and infect Racing with a Sale disease. It was like playing a mirror image of our poor selves. They made lots of unforced handling errors, gave away lots of mind numbingly stupid penalties, looked unimaginitive in attack and talked back to the ref. Their line-out was better than ours mind. LCD being more Arthur Lowe than John Lowe this week (ask your dad if you don't know who I'm talking about).

Do they play to a different set of laws in the URC? I really liked the way the ref went about his work, very clear communication and very decisive, I just didn't have a clue what he was talking about half the time.

[SSR]

Watched the match live on the tele. Was very disappointed in Racing. We did not have to be
great to beat them, but seemed easier than it should have been.
Plenty of good performances. The backs played well. GF obviously carrying an injury and
his kicking is suffering, but him and Rob totally outplayed the opposition.
BenC was immense but should have been subbed earlier as he was struggling by the end and we need him next week.
Thought TOF was average again, why are we not playing Waisea at wing to bed him in?
Carpenter is a real find, long may he stay fit.
Scrum was solid, shame about W-GJ having to come on so early, but lasted the match well.
Thought Bamber had a good game, not sure why the lineout was such a mess, is it because
Hyron has been calling the lineout?
Onwards and (hopefully) upwards.

[SSR]

ps Roebuck was immense. Henry who?

[DavenportSharky]

Odds to win

Sale 3/7
Racing 92 11/4
Draw 25-1

I'm useless at betting. Who is favorite to win?

So Sale were favourites- you would have had to have bet a huge £7 on Sale to win, to win only £3 pounds if indeed Sale had won. On the other hand you would have only had to bet £4 on Racing to win, to win a massive £11 if indeed Racing had won.
The draw was very unlikely. Betting only £1 would have won you £25 if you had gone for that bet.
Clear as mud?

[Bucks1861]

https://www.planetrugby.com/news/sale-s ... -for-hosts

Allegedly five takeaways from last night’s game.

[Lord Elpus]

Excellent explanation of betting odds and rewards. It just goes to show - the bookies usually get it right; except for Foinavon lol.

if you prefer to work with probabilities it's easy to convert odds to probability.
So:- Sale win 3 to 7 (usually called 7 to 3 on) = 0.7 (70%) , Racing Win 11 to 4 = 0.26 (26%) , Draw 0.04 (4%) . Probabilities sum to 1 (or 100%).

So the bookies had Sale roughly three times more likely to win than Racing.

[dinogyro]

Excellent explanation of betting odds and rewards. It just goes to show - the bookies usually get it right; except for Foinavon lol.

if you prefer to work with probabilities it's easy to convert odds to probability.
So:- Sale win 3 to 7 (usually called 7 to 3 on) = 0.7 (70%) , Racing Win 11 to 4 = 0.26 (26%) , Draw 0.04 (4%) . Probabilities sum to 1 (or 100%).

So the bookies had Sale roughly three times more likely to win than Racing.

I probably won't do that as is makes me more confused!

[Evo]

As much as it was pleasing to score 4 tries and a bonus point, and although Racing didn't perhaps do themselves justice, both the aforementioned possibly down to the outstanding defensive effort by the team from 1-15.
We have watched a worrying porous defence on a few times this season, but last night the team seemed on the same page and pressed Racing back time and time again when they had possession. Lancaster and others then were left with chip kick options which our back three returned with aplomb ......whether McGuigan has made all the difference (Tigers and last night, less so Glasgow) and/or more interestingly we noticed Alex leading with warm up drills before the kick off - pick and drives - which we've never seen before.- seemed much more hands on.
Need to back it up now next week.

[Yareet]

Quins 19-6 Stormers at HT


Given Stormers lost to Toulon last weekend, a loss today would leave them essentially out of the the running for qualification.

Is it too much to hope that they might rest some players for our game?

[Oh Danny Boy]

Quins 19-6 Stormers at HT
Given Stormers lost to Toulon last weekend, a loss today would leave them essentially out of the the running for qualification.
Is it too much to hope that they might rest some players for our game?

Winning every European and URC game keeps head coaches awake year round. Theyre a cracking team but only their head sheds know which competition they've decided to take seriously this season. Fingers crossed they're going to rotate for our game.

[PappjeShark]

Harper off for a HIA, but looked bad so I'm guessing he won't be back
Hope WGJ's been hitting the cardio on his time off

Edit: Not a HIA, permanent change off the bat

No, it was very much a HIA and one he had no chance of coming back from. It wasn’t very nice to see. You could see there was an impact and he went straight down. Then after eventually getting onto his knees he tried to stand up and run back towards play and was stumbling all over the place, one of our medics was already running on the pitch to get to him before the ref got the nod to stop play.

[PappjeShark]

More generally, it was a really good night. Spicy on the pitch, the crowd up for it, the result we wanted. Some of the officiating seemed woeful and in the spirit of making you glad of not being on the end of it on a weekly basis, fortunately we could laugh at it once we’d built the lead.

Our tackling was often ferocious and warmed the cockles on a chilly and damp night. Arundell clearly didn’t enjoy his visit - milked a penalty (which I think Lancaster missed) by throwing himself to the ground to feign obstruction, knocked on when taking his eye off the ball and looking up in fear at the menacing physical presence of *checks notes* Flats, and finished by being dumped in his derrière by Roebuck. Who was magnificent throughout.

Seems a fair few picked up on RdP comments and rumour is that JL going to Bordeaux. Would be a great shame for us but also a big wrench for them to split up you’d imagine - the first half dust up was sparked when JL ran in to defend Dan who’d been dumped backwards out of a ruck after the whistle had gone.