Sale give Worcester their 13th consecutive loss

Worcester Warriors suffered their 13th consecutive Aviva Premiership loss when they were beaten 26-10 by Sale Sharks at the AJ Bell stadium.

Tom Arscott’s 75th-minute try handed Sale a bonus-point win and kept Worcester well adrift at the bottom of the Aviva Premiership.

The winless Worcester side actually took the lead after a scrappy opening quarter of an hour as fly-half Ignacio Mieres put an early miss behind him to slot over a penalty.

They looked like they may even stretch that advantage several minutes later as full-back Chris Pennell continued his good form in the early stages of the season and stepped his way past several Sale defenders and deep into opposition territory.

When you’re at the bottom things don’t tend to go your way though and, after the ball was promptly turned over, Danny Cipriani launched a counter attack from inside his own 22 that ended with Will Addison arrowing a cross-field kick straight into the arms of Mark Cueto for Sale to score in the left-hand corner.

The Sharks doubled their total early in the second half as well after number eight James Gaskell hovered out wide and benefited from some good hands from Cipriani and Daniel Braid to score in the corner.

With no wins and just two bonus points from seven outings so far this season, the visitors didn’t exactly look like they had the belief to turn things around and their fate was all but sealed before the hour mark.

Braid continued his excellent recent form as he finished off a powerful driving maul from his fellow forwards to score his second try of the season and prompt the home side to start thinking about the bonus point, if they weren’t already.

The Warriors did get the next try as Tongan prop Ofa Fainga’anuku was the man at the bottom of another driving maul that forced its way over the line.

It was far too little far too late though – Sale getting the bonus point that their superiority probably deserved five minutes from the end when Rob Miller sidestepped his man and fed Arscott to cross in the right-hand corner.

The Sharks will be delighted to be back to winning ways after successive defeats to Harlequins and Exeter in the league, but Worcester’s woes continue as their search for that elusive first Premiership win of the season goes on.

Final Score Sale Sharks (7) 26 Worcester (3) 10

Scorers

Sale
Tries: Cueto, Gaskell, Braid, Arscott
Cons: Cipriani 3

Worcester
Try: Fainga’anuki
Con: Pennell
Pen: Mieres

Match Officials
Referee: Andrew Small ( Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Robin Goodliffe & Stuart Terheege
TMO: David Grashoff.

Teams

Sale Sharks

Rob Miller, Tom Arscott, Will Addison, Sammy Tuitupou, Mark Cueto, Danny Cipriani, Dwayne Peel, Eifion Lewis Roberts, Marc Jones, Henry Thomas, Jonathan Mills, Michael Paterson, Dan Braid, David Seymour, James Gaskell

Replacements Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Vadim Cobilas, Andrei Ostrikov, Mark Easter, Will Cliff, Nick Macleod, Mark Jennings

Worcester Warriors

15 Chris Pennell, 14 James Stephenson, 13 Alex Grove, 12 Ravai Fatiaki, 11 Dean Hammond, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Jonny Arr, 8 Leonardo Senatore, 7 Sam Betty, 6 Jonathan Thomas (C), 5 Mike Williams, 4 James Percival, 3 Rob O’Donnell, 2 Chris Brooker,1 Ofa Fainga’anuku

Replacements: 16 Ed Shervington, 17 Jeremy Becasseau, 18 John Andress, 19 Dean Schofield, 20 Richard de Carpentier, 21 Paul Hodgson, 22 Paul Warwick, 23 Josh Matavesi