Stunning performances by two-try Simon Hammersley and Rohan Janse van Rensburg guided Sale Sharks to a comfortable opening-day victory over Northampton Saints in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
Hammersley dotted down once in each half to bolster Sale’s score, while it was Janse van Rensburg’s intercept early in the second half that looked to break Saints’ spirits.
Starting confidently, Sale kept play in Northampton territory and worked the ball to Hammersley, who darted inside off his left foot and spun over the line for Sale’s first try, with six minutes gone.
Sloppy hands by Northampton gifted Sharks a scrum on the Saints five-metre line and a brilliant push earned Sale a penalty try.
Nearing half-time, Saints broke through the Sale line and quick hands saw the captain, Teimana Harrison, cross the line to narrow the deficit to 15-8 at half-time.
Northampton started the second half strongly, until an intercept try by Janse van Rensburg pulled Sharks further ahead and, moments later, the South African deftly passed to Chris Ashton, who went over for another score.
Saints’ misery was compounded when Akker van der Merwe scored after Bevan Rodd brilliantly offloaded out the back of his hand and then it was Hammersley again, who jaunted over following a wonderful lofted pass.
An Alex Coles try towards the end of the game saw Northampton marginally close the gap but it was far too little far too late.
WHAT THEY SAID
Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond: “It was good – we played reasonably well. I think we’ve got a good squad – we’ve got strength in depth. We can afford to change the front row, we can give lads opportunities like Bevan Rodd, who came on and played very well.
“Bevan is a good ball-carrier, he’s a big lad whose been with us for a year and he’s humble and hard-working. There’s an opportunity, there’s a shot for him. Hopefully he’s got a big future.
“The younger player will get their opportunities – all they’ve got to do is what’s normal, what they did here.
“It’s easy to slip one or two into a squad, put any more in and it does make it weak but to give them game-time like we have done shows the reward for what they’ve done in practice.
“We’ll use the Premiership Rugby Cup in a pretty similar way to how we did here. We’ve got a squad who’ve not played together since May, so next week we may rest a couple of players who’ve got injuries.
“We’ll give the lads who didn’t play here a game next week and then go pretty much full strength for the last two Cup games.”
Northampton Saints defence coach Alan Dickens: "We went in at half-time and we could have been closer than 15-8 down. The messages were positive but they came out and got an intercept try and that hurt us early doors in the second half.
"There were some positive signs, we had a lot of young players out there and they've experienced a fully competitive game.
"They were physical, they've bolstered their squad with a lot of signings and they're big men so they're going to be physical.
"It's an experience and our lads will become better players as a result."
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