Perhaps something is beginning to stir at Sale after all. On a night when the Saracens forward Billy Vunipola marked his comeback from injury with a well-taken opening try and played the full 80 minutes it was the hosts who were celebrating a famous, third successive Premiership victory.
On New Year’s Day Sale’s embattled director of rugby, Steve Diamond, declared his ambition to compete for trophies again. Putting Saracens, the defending champions, to the sword suggested his desire has substance. Not much has gone right for Sale since their memorable 2006 Premiership final win over Leicester at Twickenham. But this hard-earned victory, chiselled on aggression and two delightful first-half tries, was rapturously received by Diamond and his men.
“We’ve beaten the best team in the country and you have to bully them into it sometimes,” Diamond said with a mischievous smile after Sale’s mere second win over Saracens in the last eight years. “But we’ve been playing well and I embrace the challenge of playing in this competition. I think ‘can we turn them over?’ and with the players we’ve got, believing in what we’re doing, we’re doing all right.”
Vunipola was making his first appearance since breaking his left arm during a European Champions Cup win at Glasgow on 14 October. In the seventh minute he opened the scoring when he collected a pass from Alex Goode and evaded four Sale defenders to touch down in the left corner.
Sale responded with two tries in five minutes midway through the first half. First the homegrown centre Sam James broke from midfield and found Denny Solomona on the right flank before gratefully receiving the winger’s inside pass to scamper clear.
It got even better for Sale five minutes later when the scrum-half Faf de Klerk, who beavered away frenziedly all night, seized possession from a lineout. His deft pass found the ubiquitous James who had the presence of mind to return the favour to Solomona racing clear on a diagonal run inside the right channel from around 50 metres out.
A yellow card for Owen Farrell following a high shot on his England teammate Chris Ashton in the 35th minute added to the belief that it could be the hosts’ night. Tempers flared as the hour approached, with Saracens’ lock George Kruis and the Sale captain, Jono Ross, squaring up in a spat which also involved Richard Wigglesworth, the former Sharks man. It underlined how much the game meant to both sides as chances grew scarce and tensions mounted.
Emphatic proof that Sale really had got under their visitors’ skin came with 20 minutes remaining. Saracens’ replacement hooker Christopher Tolofua became the second visiting player to be sent to the sin-bin when he caught Arron Reed off the ball. After dissent from Farrell saw him concede a penalty moments later, Du Preez’s boot finished off Saracens amid scenes of euphoria, before Nick Tompkins’ last-minute consolation lifted the visitors top.
Saracens’ director of rugby, Mark McCall, said: “Billy did quite well but we just got the fundamentals wrong tonight.”