REPORT | Sale Sharks U18 66-17 Warriors U18

BY OLI HIGGS

Warriors Under 18s succumbed to a 66-17 defeat at the hands of Sale Sharks Under 18s on Sunday afternoon in the Premiership Rugby Under 18 Academy League.

Sale scored ten tries to Warriors’ three at Manchester Metropolitan University to secure a bonus-point victory.

The game started brightly for Warriors, who made their way into Sale territory with a string of penalties.

After seven minutes, they bought up the first score following some clever interplay between scrum-half Jake Leonard and his forwards. Max Baggs was the beneficiary, barging over with a run from the 22 to make it 5-0.

In a back-and-forth opening spell, Sale hit back quickly through Ciaran Booth after running from their own half and Tom Curtis’ conversion meant they led 7-5.

Warriors’ moment of the game then followed when full-back Noah Heward, whose illusive running has become a trademark of their play this season, collected the ball on his own ten-metre line. He preceded to burst through the immediate tacklers before isolating the last line of defence, beating his man with an eye-catching step to finish.

The resulting kick-off saw the visitors make their first big mistake of the game as they lost possession and invited the Sale forwards to rumble on and eventually prop Bevan Rodd crossed the tryline to make it 12-10.

Sale continued to live off of Warriors penalties as they moved further ahead, this time James Harper was the scorer.

Warriors were well in the tie at this stage, but the remainder of the half would come to define the game.

First James Rooney and then Tom Walsh crossed for the hosts in quick succession. Both times Sale broke with ease down the left and their offloads, sometimes speculative, found their men to make it 33-10 at the break.

As play resumed, Warriors reasserted themselves on the game, crafting attacking positions, however, after they lost the ball, they found themselves further behind.

Sale moved up the field with pace before Rouban Birch crossed to make it 38-10 after running from his own half.

Another quick-fire double from the hosts put the game out of sight for Warriors. Running from deep, Sale scored first through Connor Doherty, and then through Ewan Ashman.

Sam Dugdale was the next Sale try-scorer as Warriors’ defence tired. With the clock approaching the hour mark, it was 59-10 to the hosts.

Warriors managed a consolation score through Rob Lester after the centre powered through the defence and beat the cover to give Warriors a chance of picking up a potentially crucial bonus point.

However, it was Sale who scored the final try as replacement Cal Ford went over to round off proceedings, leaving Warriors empty-handed.

Warriors entertain Newcastle Falcons at Sixways in their final league game next Saturday 10 February (kick-off 1pm), needing a win to stand a chance of reaching Finals Day.

Timeline
07m | Baggs try 0-5
13m | Booth try 5-5
13m | Curtis con 7-5
19m | Heward try 7-10
22m | Rodd try 12-10
27m | Harper try 17-10
28m | Curtis con 19-10
29m | Rooney try 24-10
29m | Curtis con 26-10
31m | Walsh try 31-10
32m | Curtis con 33-10
48m | Birch try 38-10
52m | Doherty try 43-10
53m | Curtis con 45-10
55m | Ashman try 50-10
55m | Curtis con 52-10
58m | Dugdale try 57-10
59m | Curtis con 59-10
62m | Lester try 59-15
62m | Phipps con 59-17
65m | Ford try 64-17
66m | Curtis con 66-17

Warriors | 15 Noah Heward, 14 Alex Haselock, 13 Rob Lester, 12 Paul Wells, 11 Charlie Gamble, 10 Louis Jackson, 9 Jake Leonard; 1 Lewis Holsey, 2 Jamie White, 3 Max Baggs, 4 Tom Berry, 5 Owien Harriott-Davis, 6 Oli Thorneywork, 7 George Bates, 8 Tom Fawcett

Replacements | 16 Josh Olver, 17 Ben Woodland, 18 Tom Furnival, 19 George Parker, 20 Ben Turner, 21 Tom Williams, 22 Josh Phipps, 23 Ollie Gould