Lobbe sees that weak Wasps pay
Sale 31 Wasps 3
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Your support makes all the difference.Sale comprehensively outclassed Wasps to go second in the Guinness Premiership yesterday. However, the Wasps head coach, Shaun Edwards, was left as apoplectic about the structure of English rugby as he was the inept showing of his team.
Wasps made nine starting changes from last week's victory over Saracens in order to comply with the RFU Elite Performance Squad ruling that means international players have to be rested for one game between Premiership rounds nine and 11. Players such as Danny Cipriani and Paul Sackey were therefore unavailable for this match and no club in the world can afford to change so many of their principal workforce and expect business as usual. It was a point Edwards scathingly focused upon afterwards.
"It was quite evident that they had their first team out and we had our second team out," he said. "Unfortunately, the way the competition is structured at the moment, just as we get some momentum going and we get four wins under our belts, then – bang – we have to make nine changes. Bullshit, isn't it? But that's what you have to do."
As valid as Edwards' concerns may be, to suggest Sale won this encounter simply because they were facing a depleted opposition would do the Cheshire side a gross disservice.
Edwards acknowledged as much when he called Sale the "form team" in the league at the moment and they played the type of aggressive but free-spirited rugby which reiterated that they can be serious title contenders.
The opening exchanges belonged, by a shade, to Sale and it was the home side who took the lead on 10 minutes when their captain, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe, finished off a superb running move.
Sustained pressure created an overlap on the right-hand side and the ball was beautifully moved through the hands of Dean Schofield, Neil Briggs and Charlie Hodgson before Lobbe finally capitalised on the space and romped over in the corner.
If Sale's first try was created by their own vision, their second two minutes later emanated entirely from the altruism of the Wasps winger Chris Bishay. The academy player extended the season of goodwill by one day as he failed to shepherd a Mark Cueto kick into touch, generously allowing David Doherty to pick up 30 metres out and feed Cueto, who had an unobstructed run in under the posts for a simple try. On his birthday as well.
Soon after, a successful Dave Walder penalty failed to hide the fact that Wasps were simply not up to the challenge. Sale exuded energy and verve, Wasps demonstrated lethargy and carelessness.
Their ineptitude was epitomised when they failed to play to the whistle as Hodgson waltzed over for Sale's third score on 24 minutes. As Joe Worsley tried to get back on-side following a surging charge by Eifion Roberts, the ball hit the flanker on the chest and rebounded inside Wasps' own five-metre line. Worsley and his team-mates looked to the referee Rob Debney to see what action he would take; he correctly waved play on and Hodgson scurried past the Wasps statues, picked the ball up and scored another gift of a try before kicking his third successful conversion.
Sale continued to control the game after the break but to less numerical effect. Hodgson kicked an early penalty before Lobbe crawled over in the dying moments to secure the crucial bonus point.
"I am pleased with the win and the bonus points," said Sale's director of rugby, Philippe Saint-André. "We showed a lot of confidence and we took some risks and played some rugby. To beat Wasps and score four tries in the Guinness Premiership is good, I don't think a lot of teams have done that."
Sale: Tries Lobbe 2, Cueto, Hodgson; Conversions Hodgson 4; Penalty Hodgson. Wasps: Penalty Walder.
Sale: Cueto; Bell, Tuilagi, McAlister (Ripol, 40), Doherty (McLeod, 69); Hodgson, Wigglesworth (Peel, 58); Faure (Sheridan, 48), M Jones (Fearns, 55), Roberts (Turner 78), Chabal, Schofield (C Jones, 74), White, Briggs, Fernandez Lobbe.
Wasps: Mitchell (Lawler, 40; Beech, 80); Bishay (Staunton, 40), Lewsey (Webber, 77), Flutey, Voyce; Walder, Simpson (Reddan, 40); French, Ward, Payne, Shaw, Birkett (Skivington, 64), Worsley, Betsen, Ellis (Leo, 46).
Referee: R Debney (Leicestershire).
Attendance: 10,841.
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