Premiership: Sale 20-15 Northampton - Sharks begin with hard-fought home win

Tom O'Flaherty joined Sale from Exeter Chiefs before the start of last season

Last season's Premiership runners-up Sale Sharks began the new campaign with a hard-fought home victory over Northampton Saints.

Northampton, who finished fourth in 2022-23, grabbed the first try through Tommy Freeman.

But tries from wingers Tom Roebuck and Tom O'Flaherty and hooker Ethan Caine had Sale 20-10 in front by half-time.

James Ramm's score halved the deficit but Sale withstood late pressure on their own line to hang on for the win.

Both sides came up short against champions Saracens in last season's play-offs and are eager to go further this time.

But for this first match of the new league campaign, 10 players - five from each side - were absent on duty at the World Cup in France, including six who are involved in England's quarter-final against Fiji in Marseille.

Only Saracens scored more points than Northampton last year and they showed that attacking thrust with the first score from Freeman coming after they had maintained an attack for the opening two minutes.

However, only bottom side Newcastle Falcons shipped more points last season, with rugby league coach Lee Radford brought in to oversee their defence.

There is still obviously work to do as Sale's first couple of visits into their 22 saw Roebuck going over in one corner and then O'Flaherty crossing in the opposite one as they turned the scoreline in their favour.

Northampton only had a Fin Smith penalty to show from some good attacking positions before replacement Caine, on as a blood replacement for Tommy Taylor, went over from a maul to extend Sale's lead to 10 by the interval.

The hosts were twice held up on the line after the break as they looked to seal the victory and a bonus point, before Ramm raced in from halfway in the 70th minute after a good break from Alex Coles.

That set up a tense finale as Saints sensed an unlikely win and they were camped in the red zone for the last few minutes, with Sale's Rob du Preez sin-binned, in a manner similar to Ireland in Saturday's World Cup quarter-final defeat to New Zealand.

But Sharks showed their defensive strength to keep them at bay. They were the Premiership's best defence last season and after nine wins out of 10 on this ground last term, this showed that it will take a big performance to topple them here.

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson told BBC Sport:

"It was really hard fought and we could have lost it on a different day.

"But they showed why I love the group so much. They have ocean depth reserves of heart and they fight for each other.

"If you are going to want to see any kind of quality on the opening game, it's what we witnessed in that last five minutes.

"I was chuffed with some of our attacking intent and ambition in the first half, but if you carry your heart on anything, it's that kind of ticker that the lads showed."

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Sport:

"It's a bit frustrating. We probably left it a little bit too late, really.

"We had a lot of opportunities in that second half. I don't know how many times we lost the ball, dropped it or didn't go over the line and we didn't convert the chances we created.

"There were loads of positives. A lot of things that we have identified and pushed for in training, we saw today, particularly from a defensive point of view."

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, S James, Bedlow, O'Flaherty; R du Preez (capt), Quirke; McIntyre, Taylor, Schonert, van Rhyn, Hill, JL du Preez, Dugdale, D du Preez.

Replacements: Caine, Harrison, Harper, Wiese, Beaumont, Warr, Curtis, Reed.

Northampton: Hendry; Freeman, Dingwall (capt), Hutchinson, Ramm; F Smith, T James; E Waller, Langdon, Davison, Moon, Coles, Scott-Young, Pearson, Graham.

Replacements: R Smith, A Waller, Millar Mills, Lockett, Munga, McParland, Grayson, Seabrook.

Referee: Adam Leal

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