Hercus steps up to put Sale second

London Irish 6 Sale 9

Mike Sinclair
Monday 07 February 2005 01:00 GMT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Mike Hercus kicked Sale Sharks to an unlikely victory over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium yesterday afternoon and lifted his side to second in the Zurich Premiership table.

Mike Hercus kicked Sale Sharks to an unlikely victory over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium yesterday afternoon and lifted his side to second in the Zurich Premiership table.

The American fly-half, stand-in for England's Charlie Hodgson, landed two first-half penalties and a 40-metre drop-goal as Sale built up a 9-0 lead against the run of play and then clung on for victory.

Yet that was only achieved thanks to a terrible kicking display by London Irish's usually dependable Mark Mapletoft. Going into the match, Mapletoft had kicked 136 points this season, but in the first half he squandered numerous opportunities to put the Exiles firmly in control.

Mapletoft missed his first four penalty attempts - two of them from relatively easy positions - and was also wide of the target with two drop-goal efforts. He finally got it right when his fifth penalty, from in front of the posts, went over in the seventh minute of first-half injury time.

Three minutes into the second half, Mapletoft hit the target with his second penalty from seven attempts, but then he narrowly missed a long-range effort in the 71st minute which would have salvaged a draw for Irish.

The home side had only themselves to blame after dominating the game territorially, but failing to make their control count. They were denied a try midway through the first half when the winger Scott Staniforth was judged to have narrowly lost out to Sale's Oriol Ripol in the race for Mapletoft's probing kick ahead. Irish also failed to take advantage when Sale were reduced to 14 men for 10 minutes after Pete Anglesea was sent to the sin-bin for stamping shortly before half-time. With Wasps losing to Newcastle, the victory moves Sale above them in the table.

Philippe Saint-André, Sale's director of rugby, admitted: "It wasn't pretty. It was a very strange game, but it's four points in the bag and we are very pleased.

"Mapletoft wasn't having a good day and London Irish made a lot of mistakes," he added, "but we worked hard, our scrum was good and our drive was good."

London Irish: Penalties Mapletoft 2. Sale: Penalties Hercus 2; Drop goal Hercus.

London Irish: Armitage; Staniforth, Penney, Catt, Sackey; Mapletoft, Edwards (Hodgson, 79); Hatley, Flavin (Van der Walt, 67), Hardwick, Kennedy, Casey (Strudwick, 72), Gustard (Danaher, 80), Dawson, Murphy (Reid, 61). Sale: Hanley; Ripol (Wigglesworth, 53), Baxendell (Payne, 75), Todd, Mayor; Hercus, Redpath; Sheridan, Roddam (Titterell, 45), Turner (Stewart, 45), Day, Schofield, Carter, Lund, Anglesea (Caillet, 57).

Referee: G Ashton-Jones (Hampshire).

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

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