Sale hold on to beat Saracens despite Vermeulen red

The Prem

Saracens (5) 17

Tries: Mawi, Va’enuku, C Bracken Cons: Burke

Sale (7) 21

Tries: Jibulu, O’Flaherty, Bamber Cons: Ford 2, Lozowski

Sale overcame Jacques Vermeulen’s red card to defeat Saracens and pick up their first win of The Prem campaign.

Sarries struggled to break down a stubborn Sharks defence despite having numerical superiority for 27 minutes of the first half after Alex Lozowski’s yellow and Vermeulen’s 20-minute red card.

Incredibly, Sale took a 7-5 lead into half-time thanks to Nathan Jibulu’s early converted try, despite Eroni Mawi’s reply, and then went further ahead soon after the break as Tom O’Flaherty raced in.

Ben Bamber stretched Sale’s lead to 11 points after Sione Va’enuku had cut the gap, and though Charlie Bracken’s late score again put the game in the balance, the hosts held on.

After shipping 150 points to Saracens in two Prem hammerings last season, Sale’s victory at the Stone X was built on a huge defensive effort.

Their forwards laid down an impressive early marker when a driving maul carved through Sarries with relative ease to sweep Jibulu over the line.

But the visitors were soon down to 13 as former Sarrie Alex Lozowski was yellow-carded for a high shot on Barbeary on his first Sale start before Vermeulen was red-carded for putting a shoulder into Tomos Williams’ head.

And only a TMO intervention prevented the visitors going down to 12 when Hamish Smales overturned Courtney Lawes’ yellow card for a deliberate knock on.

Smales was involved again to overturn Nick Tompkins’ smart close-range finish for a Nick Isiekwe’s obstruction in the build-up, but Mawi finally turned Sarries’ red-zone pressure into points when he powered over.

Yet Sale were heartened to head into half-time with a two-point lead and back up to full strength as Elia Canakaivata replaced Vermeulen.

Saracens responded with three changes at half-time, including a debut for England lock George Martin, but Sale soon went nine points clear when O’Flaherty collected George Ford’s up and under on halfway and raced away to score.

The hosts finally found their cutting edge when a quick switch of play while camped on the Sale line created an overlap and gave Va’Enuku a walk-in on debut.

Sale’s defence continued to impress before a quick change of pace in attack sent them 21-10 up as Ford teed up Bamber to run a hard line through a gap and race in.

Once again the Sarries response was swift as Jack Bracken cut in off the right wing to give brother Charlie a clear run to the line to set up a tense finale.

Saracens: Daly; J Bracken, Tompkins, Va’enuku, Segun; Burke, Williams; Mawi, Dan, Street, Itoje (c), Tizard, Isiekwe, Gonzalez, Barbeary.

Replacements: Clarke, O’Driscoll, Clarey, Martin, Michelow, Earl, C Bracken, Malins.

Sale: Carpenter; O’Flaherty, Marchant, Lozowski, Reed; Ford, Warr; Smith, Jibulu, Opoku-Fordjour, Van Rhyn (c), Bamber, Lawes, Curry, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Caine, McIntyre, Francis, Tshiunza, Canakaivata, Hanson, Louw, Loganimasi.

Sin-bin: Lozowski (11)

Red card: Vermeulen (18)

Referee: Joe James.