Alex Sanderson had challenged his Sale side to show they were not the “whipping boys” of undoubtedly the most brutal pool in this new‑look Champions Cup format, and this was a fairly emphatic response from his players on a bitterly cold afternoon in Salford.
Perfect? Not quite, and Sale may yet rue the opportunities they spurned in a tense first half that led to them missing out on a bonus point by a solitary try. In a pool that includes last year’s finalists, La Rochelle and Leinster, plus the might of Leicester and the Stormers, every point could yet be decisive. But the Premiership leaders did more than enough to see off the challenge of Stade Français here and suggest they certainly have a fighting chance of qualification.
The Parisian side, the wildcard of Pool D in the sense of never quite knowing what you will get from them, certainly did not live up to the billing here but this should be about what Sale did well, rather than what their opponents didn’t. Sanderson’s pack led from the front and laid the foundations for everything that followed, with three second‑half tries in 20 minutes proving to be more than enough to get their European campaign off to a good start.
It may not have been the perfect five‑point haul, but four is a solid platform to build upon before next week’s daunting trip to Leinster. Sanderson said he was delighted with how his side stuck to their task even when a number of visits to the Stade 22 in the opening half yielded just a pair of George Ford penalties.
“We just missed those opportunities to score in the first half,” he said. “An inch or two here or there and it’s different … but they stayed on it. Those things can de-energise you, and you can maybe think it might not be your day but we knew we were playing in the right areas.” The tries certainly didn’t arrive in the first half but, as Sanderson insisted, their performance levels were certainly on it from the opening whistle.
The best chance inside the opening half-hour came when Joe Carpenter appeared to ground a clever kick from Gus Warr, but replays showed the Sale full‑back fumbled in grounding the ball. Regardless, Ford kicked the opening points from the tee with a penalty after advantage had been allowed to give Carpenter that missed chance of scoring the first try.
But time and time again Sale pressure came to very little. Manu Tuilagi’s first appearance since the World Cup was an encouraging one, after a week when Sanderson insisted the England player’s career had a few more years left to run. More performances such as this and Tuilagi could easily remain a Sale player beyond this season. He was at the heart of a couple of half‑chances for the Sharks too but, as they came and went, Stade briefly came to life.
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A slick move from the lineout led to Jeremy Ward breaking away to score and suddenly you wondered how crucial Sale’s profligacy might be in the long run. Ford nudged them back ahead with a second penalty on the half-time whistle but, leading 6-5, the game was certainly in the balance. However, the hosts stepped things up in clinical fashion after the break to take the game away from Stade.
A Sale penalty on halfway sprung them into attacking position 10 minutes into the second half and they finally made a set play stick to allow Tom O’Flaherty to cross in the corner.
The introduction of Raffi Quirke at nine gave the Sale attack fresh impetus, and it was his clever piece of intuition on the short side that allowed Jonny Hill to force his way over in the corner, with Tom Curtis converting to make it 21-5. The only question now was whether the Sharks could score the tries required to clinch a bonus‑point win.
With five minutes to go, they raised real hopes of that happening when Quirke was again involved to allow the outstanding Sam Dugdale to cross under the posts. Stade denied Sale any further opportunities to secure the extra point, but Sanderson’s men could still look back on an impressive afternoon’s work.
Things don’t get any easier with a trip to Leinster next week, and Sanderson said post-match: “You can’t go there meekly and sit back on your haunches because they will run through you. We’ve got to go there and attack them.” His side will have to step it up, but this was a decent showing to suggest qualification from this lethal pool is certainly possible.
