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Pour s'inviter au prestigieux bal des prétendants dans cette poule qui compte trois des derniers demi-finalistes de l'épreuve
Saracens head into round four with a renewed spring in their step having got the better of Premiership rivals Sale Sharks last weekend.
Mark McCall’s men became the first English opposition to beat Sale in Europe’s premier cup competition and another victory in the return fixture would give their chances of qualifying from pool one a huge boost.
Saracens had to fight until the very end to get their narrow 19-15 victory but centre Duncan Taylor says the squad are in confident mood ahead of Saturday’s clash.
Taylor said: “It’s been very positive this week at training. We were coming off the back of a couple of losses before last week’s game, so it was important for us to get the result, so last weekend’s win was huge for us. It’s been a really positive camp this week.
“Sale are a very strong side. Their set-piece is outstanding and they scored a try from a driving maul against us last weekend, and have scored a couple against us earlier on this season from their maul. We know that we can’t gift them field position as they have the ability to hurt any side.
“They’ve got a good platform, and have some pretty dangerous backs. They’re a good side going really well and we’ll have to be at our best to beat them on Saturday.”
Sale are boosted by the return of influential lock Nathan Hines, who returns for his first game since September after tearing his bicep. The 38-year-old goes straight into the Sale starting XV alongside captain Dan Braid, who missed last week’s defeat.
Match Facts
- Sale Sharks’ loss against Saracens last weekend was their first to English opposition in the Champions Cup.
- Saracens’ Jamie George, who was the joint-top tackler in Round two, made a round-high 18 tackles without missing one.
- George also landed a round joint-high 14 lineouts, finding his target with every throw.
- Sale’s Marc Jones also landed 12/12 lineouts last week.
Saracens are back on-top of European Rugby Champions Cup Pool One after battling to a 28-15 triumph over Sale Sharks at Allianz Park. - 13/12/2014 19:21
Saracens are back on-top of European Rugby Champions Cup Pool One after battling to a 28-15 triumph over Sale Sharks at Allianz Park.
Last season’s beaten finalists scored three tries to condemn Sale to their fourth straight European defeat, but they could not claim the crucial bonus-point. They are three points clear of Clermont Auvergne in the race to the Champions Cup quarter-finals, with the French side set to welcome Munster tomorrow afternoon.
David Strettle blew a golden scoring chance in the sixth minute when he failed to collect Chris Ashton’s pass with the try-line at his mercy. Instead it was left to Farrell to kick Saracens ahead with two penalties.
However Sale looked a different proposition to last week’s defeat. Nick MacLeod was brought in at fly-half and his break got the Sharks close.
12 followed before Hines picked up and leapt – Gridiron style – over a heap of bodies to touch down for the game’s opening try on 22 minutes. However MacLeod missed the conversion. Having scored a try, Hines then saved one moments later when he combined with scrum-half Will Cliff to deny the lively Duncan Taylor a score.
But Saracens were building momentum extended their lead shortly before half-time. Taylor went close from Ashton’s clever inside pass but Richard Wigglesworth spotted Goode loitering on the blindside and the England full-back stepped out of Michael Haley’s tackle to touch down in the corner.
Farrell missed the conversion which allowed MacLeod to close the gap, 11-8, on the stroke of half-time.
England outside-half Farrell put right his late first-half miss with a penalty before Ben Ramson broke free to secure victory in North London.
The 22-year-old winger streaked over the line to finish off a slick cross-field move, and Farrell was on-song to make it 21-8 after 57 minutes. Billy Vunipola was at apex of the Saracens juggernaut to crash over on 74 minutes and setup a race to claim a bonus-point score.
But Sale had other ideas as they rumbled back downfield to score through Eifion Lewis-Roberts – Joe Ford’s conversion took the final score to 28-15.
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