Austin Healey believes Sale Sharks don’t have the all-round game to be contenders to win this season’s Gallagher Premiership Rugby title. The Sharks were beaten 22-14 by Bristol Bears, which was their first home defeat in over a year. Both Healey and fellow TNT Sports pundit David Flatman were critical of Sale’s defence-heavy approach to the game and said it’s costing them.
TNT Sports pundit Austin Healey criticised Sale Sharks for focusing “way too much on defence” after they were beaten 22-14 at home by Bristol Bears.
Sale are one of the most physically dominant units in Gallagher Premiership Rugby but failed to impose themselves on a resilient Bears outfit, who notched the first away victory at the Salford Community Stadium in more than a year.
Healey, who won the Premiership four times during his time at Leicester Tigers, said the defeat highlighted weaknesses in the Sharks’ game and that it could be a blessing in disguise for Alex Sanderson’s side if they harbour ambitions of lifting the title in June.
“Alex Sanderson will absolutely hate that performance here at the start of the year – not what you want – but in a strange way, it’s probably a good thing for them because I’ve been thinking for a while that they’ve been playing too much by numbers,” Healey said on TNT Sports.
“They’re playing way too much by the stats. Way too much about defence, defence, defence, that is not enough to win this title. You’ve got to have a good attack, you’ve got to variety in your game.
“We saw that tonight. Bristol [had] good variety in their attacking play. [They were] a little bit lucky on a few occasions: the tip tackle, the high tackle, the two yellow cards, the bouncing ball from the charge down.
“Yes, it went their way, but you’ve got to have more to your game than just what the stats say.”
The Sharks began the game five places and eight points above their opponents but were on the backfoot early and fell 14-0 behind after less than 20 minutes courtesy of converted tries from Harry Randall and Gabriel Ibitoye.
They hit back through Jonny Hill before the break and got within a score when Agustin Creevy touched down with 12 minutes to go, but they were made to pay for failing to take their chances inside the Bristol 22.
TNT Sports’ David Flatman also hit out at Sale’s one-dimensional approach after their second defeat in succession that has them four points adrift of Harlequins at the top of the table.
“If you’re a power team and you get into that 22 – they got themselves in it 10 times – and power isn’t working and you’re playing against a team that match you physically, you need something more sophisticated to pull defences apart,” Flatman added.
“That needs to be trained, drilled and practiced. They looked uncomposed in the opposition 22 tonight.”
Next up for Sale is a trip to Cape Town to take on the Stormers in the Investec Champions Cup on January 13, which is live on TNT Sports.
– – –
TNT Sports presents the premium live sports rights previously carried by BT Sport including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Gallagher Premiership Rugby, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, MotoGP, Cricket, UFC, Boxing, NBA and WWE. The streaming home for TNT Sports in the UK is discovery+, where fans can enjoy a subscription that includes TNT Sports, Eurosport and entertainment in one destination. You can also watch TNT Sports through BT, EE, Sky, and Virgin Media
