There was a time when Sale were largely unbeatable at home, their uninviting base on the outskirts of Salford inhospitable to visitors and a fortress to Alex Sanderson’s players. Not any longer.
Not for the first time this season, Sale were reduced to Mancunian rubble in front of their own supporters as they slipped to a record Prem defeat while Saracens romped to a record Prem victory. Sanderson is a passionate, engaging rugby man but scrutiny will now increase on a tenure stretching over five years which has seen Sale’s ambitious owners spend big without reward.
Noah Caluori, Saracens’ supremely talented 19-year-old wing, scored five tries against Sale on his first Prem start last October. Remarkably he repeated the trick here, filling his boots in the sunshine with another predatory five-try haul to help Mark McCall’s men keep their playoff hopes flickering.
Sarries scored 13 tries in total, but this was a shameful doddle for them against a Sale outfit whose flimsy defence was exposed time and time again. Sanderson, a born and bred northerner but a man inextricably linked to Saracens after spending 17 years there as a player and coach, has presided over 10 defeats from 13 Prem games this term.
Sale were the only side to make the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, yet this has been a season of major regression. “I’m confident I can take them forward, one hundred per cent I can,” said Sanderson, whose men had been heavily beaten by Leinster in the Champions Cup eight days earlier. “If I felt like I was losing the group then that’s a different question – I would just walk. But at the moment internally we’re very tight and we feel like we’ve got the answers moving forward.”
Sanderson pointed to injuries in his squad – the Curry twins were again sat in the stands and their absence will always be keenly felt – but there was no justification for the way Sale capitulated from the off here. “I’ll take my part in it,” added Sanderson, who has signed the likes of Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant and Alex Lozowski for next season. “I’ m leading this group and clearly I was not able to get the boys motivated enough for what we wanted from the next eight to nine weeks.
“I was not able to push those buttons, ask the right questions or bring the group together because we did not play like a team. We were well beaten, battered actually. Now I have asked them to come in tomorrow and tell me what’s motivating them individually. Some of those collective motivational drivers weren’t enough.”
Charlie Bracken and Fergus Burke dovetailed beautifully and created chance after chance for Caluori, who was playing for Ampthill only last month, one of a handful of games for them this season.
McCall said of his rising star: “That’s one of the better wing performances that I’ve seen in the Premiership for a long time – and I’ve seen a lot. A couple of Noah’s tries took some finishing and he was very strong aerially too. He’s got a strong family who keep him grounded but he’s grounded anyway and a great kid.”
It was ludicrously easy for Saracens from the moment Rotimi Segun galloped through Sale’s leaden-footed defence to score in the second minute. The outstanding Max Malins and Maro Itoje combined to send Caluori over from close range before Tom Willis stretched out an arm to touch down.
The prop Rhys Carré barged over before Burke showed delightful skill to chip over the top of a statuesque home rearguard to score before Caluori dived over for his second in the right corner.
At 38-0 down at half-time, Tom O’Flaherty pulled one back for Sale but things got even worse for them when Caluori unselfishly sent Bracken over for Saracens’ seventh try. It was soon time for Caluori to reclaim centre stage, a role he seems born for, racing clear from halfway before taking a pass for Burke for his fourth.
His fifth came five minutes later before Nathan Michelow, Malins and Ben Earl rubbed salt in the wounds of Sale, who scored through O’Flaherty again and the England prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour.
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