[DavenportSharky]

Odds to win
Saints 1/3
Sharks 7/2
Draw 33/1

[Chris Hoddle]

Had an email saying,
"On Saturday morning TOM ROEBUCK and JOE CARPENTER will be in the Macron club shop from 10.30am and they want to meet YOU!"
So must be resting a couple of players?

[Lord Elpus]

They've both been injured for a while

[Olyy]

Ford not due back until next round according to Axe, on RugbyPass

Would imagine we put out a very similar side to last week, just with TC in the mix (maybe EVR to the row, Burrow takes Woodman's spot on the bench and TC starts at 8? Though personally I'd just drop Vermeulen down and keep the Burrow/Bamber partnership going)

[RinTin]

I'd keep it as was assuming no players back from injury. Although, DDP and TC back would be nice. You could have double curry in the 19 and 20 shirts.

Has anyone heard anything on RMW and LJ? Luke is our best 15 option with Carps out so I'd like to see him back there with Reed and Flats on the wings.

[Surbiton_Shark]

Anyone heard how serious Ben Curry's injury was?

He makes a HUGE difference - more so than his twin IMHO

[DavenportSharky]

Northampton Saints v Sale Sharks
Referee: Christophe Ridley (91st match)
ARs: Harry Walbaum & Greg Macdonald
TMO: Ian Tempest

[DavenportSharky]

https://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/spor ... ks-5448063

[RinTin]

15. Arron Reed, 14. Tom O’Flaherty, 13. Joe Bedlow, 12. Marius Louw, 11. Alex Wills, 10. Rob du Preez, 9. Raffi Quirke; 1. Si McIntyre, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. WillGriff John, 4. Tom Burrow, 5. Ben Bamber, 6. Jacques Vermeulen, 7. Ernst van Rhyn ©, 8. Tom Curry.

Replacements:

16. Nathan Jibulu, 17. Tumy Onasanya, 18. James Harper, 19. Hyron Andrews, 20. Dan du Preez, 21. Gus Warr, 22. Ollie Davies, 23. Tristan Woodman.

Pretty much as we were. Bench not the strongest.

Missing - Rodd, AOF, B Curry, Ford, RMW, Roebuck, Carps, Luke James. Big names to come back there.

I'll take a good performance and losing bonus point.

[RinTin]

15 George Furbank (c)
14 George Hendy
13 Toby Thame
12 Fraser Dingwall
11 Edoardo Todaro
10 Fin Smith
9 Alex Mitchell

1 Emmanuel Iyogun
2 Craig Wright
3 Trevor Davison
4 Alex Coles
5 JJ Van Der Mescht
6 Josh Kemeny
7 Tom Pearson
8 Henry Pollock

Replacements:
16 Robbie Smith
17 Danilo Fischetti
18 Cleopas Kundiona
19 Chunya Munga
20 Callum Chick
21 Tom James
22 Tommy Freeman
23 Ollie Sleightholme

Strong opposition. That bench is impressive.

I can't see us taking any points out of this.

[Surbiton_Shark]

Would have preferred our loan winger signed to ToF. He can't be injured....

[Olyy]

Maybe EQP numbers?

I know we've gone 6:2 but last time we did that we didn't even bring the extra forward off the bench

[ejndavid95]

Has to be said given our recent history at the Gardens (lost 7 of last 10 in league) & those teams I'll go into this not expecting too much.

What I would take though is not having shipped 40 down by half time like last season!

[RinTin]

Has to be said given our recent history at the Gardens (lost 7 of last 10 in league) & those teams I'll go into this not expecting too much.

What I would take though is not having shipped 40 down by half time like last season!

My worry isn't the first half, but the next quarter of the match post half time. Historically we've had a habit of being there or thereabouts at half time, but it just gets away from us catastrophically after.

[wrinklieshark]

....but we said all this last week

[SSR]

I would be a fair bit more hopeful if we had a full squad playing, but I am a bit worried about
the benches. I just hope everyone plays well and we get a balanced share of the decisions.

[Lord Elpus]

Let's hope if it's a cricket score it's an England one.........not an Aussie one.

[Olyy]

It's looking more Saracens game than Clermont game so far

Not sure why Reed went for the ankle tap on Pollock, surely he could've gotten a step or two closer and actually tried to grab a leg?

[Olyy]

Reed again

[Dave L]

Any good vibes from last week have now been obliterated. Absolutely pitiful so far.

[ejndavid95]

Do referees just not bother with forward passes now?

[RinTin]

Comeback is on....

[Olyy]

What an odd try haha

Hopefully that sparks some life into us!

[Major Bloodnok]

—ing Nora...

[Olyy]

Absolute garbage, that

Not sure Raffi's done a single thing right today,

Reed for Davies would be good too (or Reed to the wing and one of the wingers off) - despite a good showing last week he is just not a fullback, his positioning and defence isn't good enough

[Olyy]

Mad that after the Saracens game we decided against signing injury cover at 15 and instead signed two tiny wingers who don't even make the 23


Struggling to think of reasons to watch the second half, just an absolute garbage performance

[SSR]

Can't see anything but a thorough beasting today. What the hell has happened to the
team from last week. Was Clermont that poor ?

[Olyy]

Just absolute muck

[ejndavid95]

That's enough to have TO'F hooked immediately for me...pathetic attempt at a tackle.

[Olyy]

That's enough to have TO'F hooked immediately for me...pathetic attempt at a tackle.

Raffi's miss on F.Smith as well

He's had a couple of decent half breaks but passing, kicking and tackling has been abysmal

[SSR]

This is pathetic.

[Olyy]

Say what you want about Warr's speed at the base/killer instinct, his core 9 skills are night and day compared to Raffi's

[Olyy]

Shocker of a try to concede against 14

[Halifaxshark]

Say what you want about Warr's speed at the base/killer instinct, his core 9 skills are night and day compared to Raffi's

Bang on the money with this!

[SSR]

That was truly embarassing.

[Lord Elpus]

FT for Roy - Stains 47:21 Sale Sharks.

[ejndavid95]

Might as well start planning for next season because that lot won't be making the playoffs.

[eBike]

For those, like me, who switched off

7 tries to 3
47-21
Season over I feel

[Olyy]

Don't think we'll have to worry about competing in the champions cup next season, either

[dinogyro]

It's round 7 of 18, we can make the playoffs. Should be a lot of players coming back in the New Year.

However, it did feel like a classic Sale collapse. Just one of those brain-fade games we have, about 3 a season.

[dinogyro]

Don't think we'll have to worry about competing in the champions cup next season, either

That'll be a relief for me, I don't think we ever have the resources for that competition.

[DavenportSharky]

Scoring 3 tries away against a very strong Saints side considering how many first choice players we are still missing is not as awful as people are suggesting.
Don’t be affected by Ashtonitis who took every opportunity to criticise Sale.
Tom O’F’s interception was extraordinary. James Harper does not look quite the liability he did a few matches ago. Great experience for Burrow, Onasanya, Wills, Joe Bedlow, Woodman.
Ridley missed a lot for both sides. Forward passes galore. There were 3 in the build up to the try he gave on field before TMO disallowed it. There was a no arms tackle on Reed in the first half. He gave Louw 2 turnovers when he was clearly not supporting his own weight.
Never expected us to win today so it has not blighted my weekend

[dinogyro]

Definitley some good points, as you have made, but the first 30 minutes were just dreadful.

Ashton must of had a bad time with us, as he is quite harsh whenever he commentates our games.

[LJK]

Yes a huge switch off in the first half meant we were chasing the game in the 2nd and it showed. Lack of patience in their 22 again being the crushing reality with dropped balls and over ambitious passes. Having said that Saints were great in defence all through with very few penalties given.
There are just too many quality teams already well away at the top of the table for Sale to realistically close a 13/15 point gap even with our usual late run.
Interesting that some players who are often vilified on here did well today. TOF being the obvious one ....he may not have the acceleration of many wingers now, but he does have good speed and two astonishing pieces of play today. Harper too showed that he can 'cut it' at this level, after a poor game last week.

[Lord Elpus]

.......and so to bed, slightly happier now Quims got royally stuffed at home.

[ledzepsfr]

Well we got what I thought we would - nothing. TO'F took his tries well, great interception. Quirke was back to his worst. For me, not a patch on where he was before his injuries and nowhere near Warr.
Why no Tempest intervention on the Pollock shoulder to Reeds head?
I don't think Aston was overly critical of Sale, mostly he just stated the obvious. To my ears at least.
Mathematically possible to make top four......realistically, no chance.

[SSR]

I watched the Quinns /Bristol game as well and that cheered me up a bit.
I have been dwelling on the game and we were pretty much outclassed in some areas.
The biggest factor that keeps coming back to me is that we are outdone by speed and power.
On paper the Saints backrow are good, but so is ours. They scored tries we don't.
Hendy made a mockery of our defense. When they made a break they had half the team
supporting it. When we make a break, it is a single runner who gets caught and over turned.
Our forwards compete but have very little penetration on attack.
Our backs do not provide enough threat or excitement. We are a slow side.

[45jumper]

Didn't manage to watch it live but the highlights are grim viewing. Defensively our alignment is shambolic and the one-on-one tackling was even worse. I know we have some injuries but we're so easy to play against.

[Halifaxshark]

Having watched the game and reading the comments on here. It’s obvious opinions differ but for me, whenQuirke was on the pitch we were losing 33-7 after 53 mins. His box kicking was very poor, his defence even worse and his passing in the same box as the other two. Warr came on and it was 14-14 in his 27 mins. Hopefully Warr starts the next game. I thought he linked up with RDP better and we actually played some good rugby.

Good experience for Wills, Bedlow, Woodman, Bamber, Burrow, Onasanya etc etc, but it’s top end professional rugby. Great that we are offering experience but having won 2 games from 7 in the league, it’s hardly the sign of a team with aspirations of winning the league or getting into the playoffs. We can hide behind it and say we are giving kids a chance but essentially this comes down to poor recruitment again this off season. We recently signed two wingers, but we’ve not seen them since.

Reed isn’t a full back and it’s quite difficult to watch now. His positioning is so wrong, he doesn’t tackle nearly good enough and isn’t tall enough to collect kicks. I accept TOF scored a couple of good try’s but his general play including defence isn’t good enough. Finally Harper. I remember Schonert making a big thing of Harper saying he would be the next big thing, future lions prop, he seems to get worse. I accept yesterday was better than the last few weeks but that doesn’t equate to having a good game or finally looking good enough for this level. He didn’t drop the ball, miss a tackle or give away a scrum penalty yesterday, great, but that’s the point.

I know he carried on playing after the head knock, but it feels like we’ve seen about 20 minutes of Dan Du Preez this season, another head knock and knowing our luck we won’t see him again until February. Maybe if he does move on it saves us lots of cash to spend elsewhere.

If we are gonna give this season up as a bad job and prepare for next season, let’s see Rueben Logan, Tye Raymont, Alfie Longstaff, Ollie Davies, Osain Roberts, Alex Wills, Joe Bedlow get a long run in the team and play some meaningful minutes instead of 2-5 minutes off the bench at the end of a game.

To finish on a positive, I thought Louw and Bedlow had good games!

[dinogyro]

Louw is definitely looking good.

I know TC was out of position a bit at 8, but just doesn't seem to have the huge desire to be everywhere that he used to have. I hope he's not carrying an injury.

I am presuming Carps or Luke James will be back soon (or were thought to be back by this time) as it doesn't make sense to cover such a crucial position with wingers.

I am confused as to why we didn't throw someone up in the lineout. Saints had a few crooked throws, but they were uncontested. This must have become apparent after the first 3, yet we stayed on the ground.

We also continued our fruitless kicking game. We're a bit stuffed now, as we can't collect the kicks without Roebuck and we can't punch any holes in the middle, which would let us attack out wide. The coaching team are going to have to figure out a third way until we get some of our star players back.