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Sale et Northampton se retrouvent jeudi soir (21h au AJ Bell Stadium) en quart de finale de l'Amin Challenge Cup pour une belle fratricide. Les deux formations se sont en effet déjà rencontrées deux fois cette saison
Sale Sharks and Northampton Saints get a bumper weekend of European action underway on Thursday night as they battle it out in Salford for a place in the Amlin Challenge Cup semi-finals.
The English rivals will go head-to-head at the AJ Bell Stadium, with a home tie against either Stade Francais or Harlequins awaiting the winner later this month.
Both sides have tasted tournament glory in previous seasons, with Sale succeeding in 2002 and 2005 and Northampton following suit in 2009. Saints can also boast Heineken Cup glory in 2000 and were finalists in the top tournament three seasons ago when they lost out to Leinster at the Millennium Stadium after winning all eight games en route to Cardiff.
Sale head into the knockout rounds with a slightly better record in the pool stages, although the visitors have dropped down from the Heineken Cup while Sale started off in this competition. The Sharks beat 2012 champions Biarritz Olympique to top spot in Pool 1 after five wins and two defeats and Northampton finished runners up to Leinster in Heineken Cup Pool 1 having beaten the Ospreys home and away, French champions Castres Olympique at Franklin’s Gardens and Irish giants Leinster at the Aviva Stadium.
It is Sale who are in better form, though, after a run of four straight wins and nine victories in their last 11 outings in all competitions. Steve Diamond saw his side beat Bath 12-11 at The Rec last Friday to raise hopes of a top-four finish in the Aviva Premiership as they moved to within four points of a play-off place with four games left to play.
And their fine run also includes a convincing home win over Northampton just a fortnight ago, with the Sharks running out 19-6 victors thanks to three first-half tries from Mark Cueto, Marc Jones and Tom Brady, with fly half Danny Ciprani converting two of those scores. That surprise success over the then league leaders would have been a huge confidence boost to the Sharks as they look for a repeat in their first European quarter-final since they were edged out by Biarritz in Spain in the 2006 Heineken Cup.
Saints haven’t enjoyed the best of times over the past few weeks, with that reverse in Salford sandwiched between an LV= Cup Final loss to Exeter and an East Midlands derby defeat to Leicester on home turf last Saturday.
They still sit second in the domestic table, though, some 14 points clear of Sale, and they have already proven they can bounce back from big disappointments after they followed a crushing Heineken Cup defeat by Leinster at Franklin’s Gardens with a superb win over the same opponents in Dublin a week later.
Match Notes
- Sale’s opponents won an average of just 3.2 turnovers per game during the pool stage – no club was more successful in this department.
- 66% of Sale’s tries (12/18) in the pool stage came from first phase; only I Cavalieri Prato (5/6) had a higher ratio.
- The clubs have never met in European competition before.
- Despite being outscored by three tries to none in their Aviva Premiership meeting on March 22, Northampton beat nearly three times as many defenders (13) than Sale (5) on the day.
- Saints won all nine of their games when they won the Challenge Cup in 2009.
- Northampton’s last defeat in the competition came in the 2006 quarter-finals when they lost 34-25 to Worcester Warriors at Franklin’s Gardens.
- Sale have lost just five of their 33 home games in this tournament, with all of these defeats coming against French opposition.
- The Sharks have won four of their five Amlin Challenge Cup games against English clubs. The only defeat was to Bath in the 2008 semi-finals.
- Five of the 11 tries scored by Northampton in the pool stage of the Heineken Cup came from turnovers; no side scored more after stealing opposition ball.
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George North made 434 metres with ball in hand in the pool stage of the Heineken Cup – only four players totalled more.
Il n'y a au final pas tellement eu match entre Sale et Northampton. Les Saints
Northampton Saints cruised into the final four of the Amlin Challenge Cup after seeing off Sale Sharks 28-14 in Salford on Thursday night.
The Saints kicked off a wonderful weekend of European action with a convincing victory over their fellow English outfit at the AJ Bell Stadium to set up a home semi-final with either Stade Francais or Harlequins.
A dominant first-half display left Sale with far too much to do in the second 40 minutes after the 2009 Amlin Challenge Cup winners crossed for four tries, with three of those coming direct from driven lineouts.
Openside flanker Ben Nutley scored twice for Jim Mallinder’s men, with Sam Dickinson and Ben Foden also on the scoresheet as Saints put the disappointment of three straight defeats well and truly behind them.
The evening promised to be far more positive for 2002 and 2005 tournament winners Sale when England prop Henry Thomas touched down with just five minutes gone but it was all downhill from there for the Sharks. Ironically, it was a lineout that provided the platform for their solitary first-half try, with Thomas stretching over from a metre out to give his side a dream start.
Nick Macleod sent over the conversion but Saints were level 11 minutes later after Nutley eased over from a close-range lineout. Having gone through the phases only to be repelled by a stiff Sale defence moments earlier, the visitors were rewarded for their adventure after fly half Will Hooley opted to find touch rather than take a simple shot at goal. James Craig claimed clean lineout ball five metres out and, when the rest of the Saints pack drove on, Nutley peeled off to dive over unopposed.
Hooley added the extras to go with the two kicks from two attempts from his last visit to Salford and Northampton finally had something to shout about having dominated territory for much of the opening quarter.
It was a similar story 30 seconds before the half hour as Dickinson powered over after Saints had yet again chosen a five-metre lineout over a simple three points. It was an even easier score second time around, with the former Rotherham captain ruddering the ship as the Sale defence splintered yet again.
And things got worse for Sale just three minutes later when Foden latched on to Hooley’s well-placed grubber kick to put Saints in command. And if the first two scores were built on brute force, the third was all about speed of thought and flight of foot, with Lee Dickson’s clever dummy and equally impressive pass followed by a fine chip and chase from wing Ken Pisi, before Hooley’s class set up Foden from full back.
And the first-half scoring wasn’t finished there, either, as Sale’s rolling maul deficiencies reared their ugly head once more to leave them with a mountain to climb at the interval. This time they could at least blame a shortage of numbers after Thomas was sin binned for a scrum offence just a minute before Nutley dotted down for Northampton’s fourth try. The nature of the latest score would have been even more painful for Sale, though, as Nutley’s second came from close to 15 metres out but looked to the layman’s eye to have been more straightforward than those that had gone before.
With Hooley slotting three futher conversions, Northampton started the second half with a 28-7 advantage and, although Sale pressed hard and went close through Russian lock Andrei Ostrikov just before the hour, the increasingly damp conditions made a comeback even more unlikely.
They did give themselves hope when yet another driven lineout led to a score from No8 Viliami Fihaki but, with just six minutes left on the clock, it would have taken something truly special to turn things around despite Joe Ford’s well-struck conversion and Craig’s late yellow card.
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