Danny Cipriani’s missed chances prove costly in Sale’s draw with Saracens

Sale’s director of rugby, Steve Diamond, was pleased with their draw against Saracens, despite Danny Cipriani costing his side victory with four missed conversions. Sharks were 17-0 up at one stage thanks to tries from Sam James, Johnny Leota and Tom Arscott but, following an excellent Sarries fightback, they found themselves 36-26 down with 10 minutes to go.

Late scores from TJ Ioane and Arscott duly rescued three points for Sale, but Cipriani was unable to hit the target from the tee to secure the win.

However, Diamond was content with the result, irrespective of the fly-half’s kicking woes. “I was delighted, particularly with being 10 points behind with 10 minutes to go,” he said. “I was really pleased with the last 15 minutes, it showed a lot of character. We were playing it out wide and scored a lot of good tries and Will [Addison] and Mike [Haley]were trying their best. In the last five games I think we’ve scored 19 tries and that’s what we’re good at doing so we will carry on in that vein.”

One frustration for Diamond could have been Chris Wyles’ second try, which was awarded just before half-time when the wing appeared to be in touch, but Diamond refused to be drawn into criticising the officials. “They had a dubious one in the corner, but you can’t whinge and moan, you’ve got to get on with it,” he said. “He was in touch, but you get on with it. They’ve got the TMO and, if he can’t see it, then there’s no point whinging about it.”

Saracens’ coach, Mark McCall, was also positive about the draw as his weakened outfit go seven points clear of second-placed Exeter Chiefs. He said: “Overall, we’ve got to be satisfied to get three points at a place where a lot of teams have struggled this year.

“We showed some good resilience and character to come back into it. The only disappointing thing was that when we got to 36-26 up, which seemed remarkable given the start we had, it was a little bit disappointing to let them back in, but they probably deserved it on the balance of play.

“We needed to tighten up our defence. We defended poorly in that first 20 minutes but we defended well in the second half.

“Even though they scored a couple of tries in the last 10 minutes, they had to work hard for those tries whereas they didn’t for the other three.”

Cipriani blunder costs Sale dearly

London - Danny Cipriani missed a late conversion that would have proved decisive as Sale were forced to settle for a thrilling 36-36 draw against Saracens in the English Premiership on Saturday.

Sale surged into an early 17-0 lead through tries from Sam James, Johnny Leota and Tom Arscott, but Saracens roared back to go ahead before the interval at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Jim Hamilton and Chris Wyles, who scored a pair of tries, touched down, while Charlie Hodgson and Ben Spencer added the conversions.

Hodgson, on his last appearance at the club where he started his career, also kicked a penalty before he was forced off with a head injury.

Cipriani kicked three penalties in the second period, but scores by Nick Tompkins and Mike Ellery moved the visitors 36-26 ahead.

TJ Ioane and Arscott crossed late on to haul Sale level again, but England international Cipriani was off-target with both conversions, the last of them following a 79th-minute try.

Elsewhere, James Hook scored 15 points to keep Gloucester in contention for the Premiership play-off and Champions Cup places with a 32-6 victory over Newcastle at Kingsholm.

Hook scored a try and kicked two penalties and two conversions before being replaced by Billy Burns with 16 minutes remaining.

Bill Meakes, Ross Moriarty, and Tom Savage also scored tries for Gloucester.

Billy Twelvetrees added a conversion with Craig Willis kicking two penalties for the Falcons.

Tom Collins scored his first senior hat-trick as Northampton routed Worcester 38-18 at Franklin's Gardens.

Collins, 21, showed electric pace and clever feet to help Saints to a much-needed bonus point win that avenged their opening-day defeat.

Worcester got two tries from Val Rapava-Ruskin and Wynand Olivier to give them a 15-12 half-time lead.

The game was still hanging in the balance until Collins scored his side's fifth try with 14 minutes remaining.

Harry Mallinder, Lee Dickson and George Pisi went over for Northampton's other tries.