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Sale Sharks will be looking to get back to winning ways when they welcome Oyonnax to the AJ Bell Stadium on Friday night. - 11/12/2013 15:07
It’s a case of all to play for in the Basque Country on Saturday night as Biarritz Olympique host Sale Sharks in the standout tie of the round.
Both sides can still make it through to the last eight, although it is Sale who start as favourites for that quarter-final spot given that they have a four-point lead at the top of Pool 1.
The Sharks know that a losing bonus point will be enough to take them through if Biarritz fail to score four tries, while even a loss by 23 points or less would also suffice as long as they do not allow Biarritz to score four tries or three more tries than them at the Parc des Sports Aguiléra.
But travelling to Biarritz is traditionally a tough task for most despite their poor form in the Top 14 and Sale will be aware of what could happen if they show any sense of complacency in Round 6. Biarritz have beaten both Oyonnax and Worcester on home soil so far in the current Amlin Challenge Cup campaign and the 2012 tournament winners know that securing a place in the knockout stages may take some of the heat off their domestic failings.
Sale will hope to follow Harlequins’ example after their national colleagues won 16-9 here in the Heineken Cup this time last year but history doesn’t favour the Sharks. Their only previous visit to the Parc des Sports Aguiléra resulted in a 31-3 defeat in December 2003 and no other English side has been able to match Quins’ effort since Bath tasted success way back in September 2001.
A victory of any sorts would secure a home quarter-final for Sale, while Biarritz can only grab an away tie if it is they who win the pool. If Biarritz are the ones to progress, we already know that they will be the fifth best pool winner of five and will travel to The Rec to face top seeds Bath as a result.
Match notes
A win or a draw for Sale will see them confirmed as pool winners.
If Biarritz win without a bonus point and deprive Sale of a bonus point, the teams will then be level 4-4 on match points from the two games between the clubs, and the pool winner will be decided by tries scored in the two games between the clubs with Sale currently 3-1 in front. If tries are equal, the pool winner will be decided by aggregate points difference.
The same scenario pertains if Biarritz win with a bonus point and if Sale register a losing bonus point (5-5 on match points – pool winner decided by tries, and if equal, then aggregate points difference.)
If Biarritz win with a bonus point and deprive Sale of a bonus point, Biarritz will qualify for the quarter-finals.
Sale have won just one of their last five Amlin Challenge Cup games in France.
Biarritz have lost just one of their last 11 home games in this competition – a 29- 32 defeat to Bristol in 2000.
Biarritz conceded 19 penalties in their 33-10 defeat to Sale in Round 1.
Sale have conceded just six tries this season. Only once before (4 in 2010/11) have they had a better defensive record in a European campaign.
The Sale flanker Dan Braid has won seven turnovers this season, the fourth-best on the Amlin Challenge Cup chart.
Sale have won more scrums (46) than any other side in the Amlin Challenge Cup this season, but their scrum success rate of 82% is lower than the hosts (85%).
Bath are the only club to have conceded fewer points (50, after six games) than Sale (58) in the competition to date. Biarritz have conceded 107 points.
Alors qu'il a fait la course en tête pendant toute la rencontre
It was tense and tearful at Parc des Sports Aguillera, where one team was always going to be left dreaming of what might have been with the stakes so high and the permutations so complex.
Sale Sharks arrived in the Basque country knowing that a losing bonus point would be enough to take them through to the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals as long as they could stop Biarritz scoring four tries.
Even a loss by 23 points or less would suffice the visitors as long as they were able to stop their hosts from bagging the four try bonus, or scoring three more tries than themselves. It was a night when the Sharks defence needed to be at its very best.
And that is how it turned out for most of a highly competitive and combative night that saw the teams locked at 7-6 for more than 50 minutes. The Sharks had to respond to the disappointment of leaking a try as early the 18th minute, but they reacted brilliantly.
It was the Biarritz flying machine Taku Ngwenya who ran in the opening score, converted by Julien Peyrelongue, but within seven minutes the Sharks had closed the gap to a single point. Two penalties from the boot of Rob Miller gave the visitors a real boost and from there on in their defence took over.
As Biarritz threw everything they had at them, so the Sharks tacklers lined up to cut them down wave after wave of attackers. As the tension mounted, so the pressure rose and Miler missed with two kickable penalties, one in each half.
But when he was asked to step up to the mark in the 78th minute to seal the victory, the Pool and clinch a quarter-final place, he did the job perfectly. That meant a final defensive stand in the closing minutes, but the Sharks were through to the knock-out stage to join fellow English Pool winner Bath Rugby and London Wasps.
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