It may only be week one, but the reaction of Alex Sanderson and his Sale players at full-time here on a miserable afternoon in Salford underlined just how important the manner of this victory could prove to be in the months ahead.
There is no doubting Sale have made impressive strides in recent seasons and they are capable of playing some fine rugby. But this gritty and attritional victory over a resolute and spirited Harlequins side was simply a case of needs must, amid a backdrop of grey skies and awful conditions which made free-flowing play difficult.
There is an argument that despite reaching the playoff semi-finals once again last season, this is a game Sale could have easily lost last season. On a day when they needed to dig deep and find a way to win however possible, it was the trusty right boot of George Ford which kicked them to success.
Leigh Halfpenny’s Premiership debut for Quins looked as though it would be marked with not only victory but the match-winning penalty with nine minutes remaining. The visitors would have likely looked out of their hotel rooms on Sunday morning and winced at the conditions, given their penchant for throwing the ball around.
To that end, you wondered how they would cope here. But they were impressive, showing plenty of traits which suggest they could cause plenty of teams problems when the weather inevitably takes a turn for the worse.
But two minutes after that Halfpenny penalty, Ford stepped up from long-range to nervelessly kick his fourth goal of the afternoon to restore Sale’s one-point lead. Despite a chaotic final few moments, the Sharks held on to begin their campaign with a win and leave Sanderson able to reflect in a positive manner.
“It’s not our intent to play that style of rugby, but needs must,” he said. “We did that today and I’m really impressed. We felt that a score for either team would have just opened that game up because you had to play a bit. As it was, it ended up being a bit of a stalemate towards the end and it was about territory and grinding it out.”
Quins may well look back on this as a frustrating result given how well they adjusted to the conditions. They had their chances, and scored the game’s only try when Jack Walker converted a rolling maul from close-range. That made it 6-5 after two early Ford penalties, and Halfpennny’s failed conversion attempt from that Walker try ultimately proved significant.
Sale, who handed a debut to the Fiji captain Waisea Nayacalevu, led 9-8 at the break, after Ford and Halfpenny exchanged penalties with the interval approaching. At that stage, the weather showed signs of drying up and with Danny Care and Marcus Smith primed to enter at some stage, you did wonder if a potent Quins bench could prove to be the difference.
However, no sooner had it stopped raining did it start again: and it made any sort of enterprising play difficult. There were no points in the second half until Halfpenny kicked the visitors into the lead for the first time after Sale were penalised for failing to play the ball.
Prior to that, Jack Kenningham thought he had scored for Quins, but a TMO review ruled he was held up.
Just as Quins would have been dreaming of an eye-catching and noteworthy victory on the opening weekend – and inflicting only a second home league defeat on Sale in almost two years – Ford took centre stage.
Having already kicked three fairly straightforward penalties, his fourth was not only the most important, but the most impressive.
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Seconds earlier, Ford had skewed a drop goal attempt wide but from the tee, close to the touchline, he would make no mistake. He kicked Sale back into the lead and despite a couple of hair-raising moments in the final stages, the Sharks held on. Fittingly, it was Ford who hoofed the ball into touch in added time to secure victory.
Quins leave the north with a losing bonus point and plenty of positives about what they could potentially achieve in the months ahead, but it was Ford and Sale who proved it doesn’t always have to be easy on the eye.
Sometimes, it is simply about winning however you can; to that end, this was a positive sign of what could follow over the winter for a Sale side that will once again expect to be in the title conversation this season.
