Harlequins vs Sale Sharks 21/22 Report

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14 Harlequins
36 Sale Sharks

Sun 06 Feb 1:00pm Twickenham Stoop Attendance: 14257

Harlequins vs Sale Sharks

Two Tom Roebuck tries set the boys on their way to a dominant win at the Stoop as #YourSharks down Premiership Champions Harlequins after an emphatic display in South London.

Hooker Ewan Ashman then broke through to give the Sharks a 22-0 lead before Hugh Tizard hit back in first-half added time to give the hosts hope.

But two second-half tries from Rob du Preez either side of a Tommy Allan score for Quins secured the victory and the bonus point for the visitors.

 

 

Sale were also able to give England centre Manu Tuilagi and South Africa scrum-half Faf de Klerk 30 minutes off the bench on their respective returns from injury.

Tuilagi in particular impressed with some big hits as he played for the first time since November.

AJ MacGinty missed an early opportunity as his first attempt sailed wide in the wind, before making no mistake with his second from right in front of the posts.

Sharks then moved the ball out to the right for the impressive winger Roebuck to score the first try after 16 minutes.

The pacy 21-year-old then darted inside after faking to go out wide to claim his sixth try in four matches.

Quins’ defence then went to sleep as Sale scrum-half Raffi Quirke took a quick tap-penalty and fed hooker Ashman to power over the line.

 

 

Tizard got one back for Quins in what proved to be the final action of the first half but the home side could not build on that momentum in the second period, as outside centre Du Preez burst through to secure a bonus point for his team.

De Klerk, who had not played since October, came on at the same time as Tuilagi, with the latter instantly putting his mark on the game with a trademark hard tackle on Andre Esterhuizen.

Allan saw a gap in the Sale defence to score his first try for Harlequins and set up an intriguing last 15 minutes.

But a second try from Du Preez, brilliantly assisted via a chip through by De Klerk, ended any thoughts of a Quins fightback.

 

 

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

“If you come down here and don’t believe in yourselves, you end up being a bit part as has happened many times in the past.

“We came down here with the intention of imposing our style of play more like a horror show than the Harlem Globetrotters.

“We’ve now won back-to-back games in the competition as we’ve now got a consistent squad and are finding a rich vein of form.

“They had a few key players missing whereas we had most of our stars back in our line-up.

“We are still aiming for the play-offs as I believe we are that good and should be there.”

Harlequins: Green; Lynach, Northmore, Esterhuizen, Murley; Allan, Care; Els, Walker (capt), Kerrod, Symons, Tizard, Taulani, Wallace, White.

Replacements: Riley, Baxter, Wilson, Hammond, Jurevicius, Gjaltema, Edwards, Beard.

Sale: L James; Roebuck, R du Preez, Janse van Rensburg, Reed; MacGinty, Quirke; Harrison, Ashman, Oosthuizen, JL du Preez, De Jager, Ross (capt), Dugdale; D du Preez.

Replacements: Langdon, Rodd, Jones, JP du Preez, Wiese, De Klerk, S James, Tuilagi.

Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).

Previous meetings

H Friday
October 15th 2021
7:45pm

AJ Bell Stadium
Gallagher Premiership
Sale Sharks
28
:
Harlequins
22
H Friday
June 4th 2021
7:45pm

AJ Bell Stadium
Gallagher Premiership
Sale Sharks
45
:
Harlequins
12
A Saturday
February 20th 2021
1:00pm

Twickenham Stoop
Gallagher Premiership
Harlequins
24
:
Sale Sharks
12