Exeter Chiefs suffer heavy defeat away at fired-up Sale Sharks

Exeter Chiefs slumped to their worst defeat of the season as Sale Sharks avenged their drubbing at Sandy Park earlier in the campaign to win 41-5 at the Salford Stadium on Sunday in Round 14 of the Gallagher Premiership.

The bonus-point victory for eighth place Sale blows the race for the play-offs wide open with the Sharks and all seven teams above them, including sixth place Exeter, capable of breaking into the top four. Exeter will have to be significantly better than they were today though, as they failed to fire a shot in the first half, with Immanuel Feyi-Waboso showing his class with a superb finish after the break, but that was sadly an outlier in an ugly and uninspired performance from Chiefs against a Sale side who were playing at a different intensity level.

The Sharks crossed the line six times with player of the match Tom Roebuck recording a hat-trick and tries from Luke Cowan-Dickie, Gus Warr and Raffi Quirke. George Ford added 11 points with the boot and pulled the strings in open play like a master puppeteer.

Sale had lost their previous six competitive fixtures coming into Sunday’s clash and had been defeated by Exeter in 13 of the last 16 matches between the clubs. That included a 43-0 loss at Sandy Park back in October, but the Sharks turned around those unwelcome statistics in some style.

Ford had the first opportunity for points in the match but his 40-metre penalty kick into the tricky wind sailed wide. Sale soon suffered a further blow when flanker Ernst van Rhyn departed with a leg injury to be replaced by Sam Dugdale. However, Dugdale was immediately into the action by tearing away from a line-out to put the Chiefs defence on the back foot and when the ball was recycled, a well-timed pass from Ford sent Roebuck over for the opening score. Ford converted and Sale, the better side in the opening quarter, had a deserved 7-0 lead at the end of it.

That lead was extended when Exeter flanker Richard Capstick went off-side at a ruck and Ford knocked over the resulting penalty. Giving away soft penalties to allow the hosts platforms to attack from became a contagious disease amongst the Exeter ranks with even the club's most seasoned stars falling foul of referee Hamish Smales.

Despite playing with wind advantage, Chiefs struggled to gain any foothold in the match with Ford marshalling affairs to reward the domination of his forwards. It therefore came as no surprise when Sale scored a second try when former Exeter favourite Cowan-Dickie finished off a line-out drive.

The visitors’ woes continued when their full-back Josh Hodge was harshly sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on, with the home side capitalising by scoring their third try. A fired-up Manu Tuilagi made the initial break which was carried on by Roebuck and Bevan Rodd before Warr weaved his way over. Ford missed the conversion but his side still led 22-0 at the interval, following a half in which their opponents had failed to fire a single shot.

Fifty seconds after the restart, Sale scored their bonus-point try when Roebuck collected a Warr up and under to race away for his second of the afternoon.

Hodge returned from the sin bin and in time to see his side get on the scoreboard thanks to an excellent individual try from Feyi-Waboso, who possessed too much pace and power for Sale’s coverers.

However, normal service was resumed when Sale replacement Quirke darted away from a quickly-taken penalty to score. Roebuck should have then completed his hat-trick but somehow lost possession over the line following a long kick chase that saw him skin Olly Woodburn with ease, but it mattered little as he was soon presented with the opportunity to achieve the feat and this time he made no mistake.

Exeter were sharper in attack as the game wore on but were still unable to break down the fierce Sale defence and will head home down the M5 licking their wounds ahead of switching their attention to the Champions Cup and Bath at home next weekend.

Sale Sharks: 15. Joe Carpenter, 14. Tom Roebuck 13. Rob du Preez, 12. Manu Tuilagi, 11. Tom O’Flaherty, 10. George Ford, 9. Gus Warr; 1. Bevan Rodd, 2. Luke Cowan-Dickie, 3. James Harper, 4. Cobus Wiese, 5. Josh Beaumont, 6. Ernst van Rhyn, 7. Ben Curry (c), 8. JL du Preez.

Replacements: 16. Tommy Taylor, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19. Ben Bamber, 20. Hyron Andrews, 21. Sam Dugdale, 22. Raffi Quirke, 23. Sam James

Exeter Chiefs: 15 Josh Hodge, 14 Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, 13 Henry Slade, 12 Will Rigg, 11 Olly Woodburn, 10 Harvey Skinner, 9 Stu Townsend; 1 Scott Sio, 2 Jack Yeandle, 3 Ehren Painter, 4 Dafydd Jenkins (c), 5 Christ Tshiunza, 6 Ross Vintcent, 7 Richard Capstick, 8 Greg Fisilau

Replacements: 16 Dan Frost, 17 Danny Southworth, 18 Marcus Street, 19 Lewis Pearson, 20 Jack Dunne, 21 Tom Cairns, 22 Will Haydon-Wood, 23 Zack Wimbush

Referee: Hamish Smales

Assistant Referees : Luke Pearce and Jonathan Healy

TMO : Dean Richards