Sale hand Newcastle 25th straight league loss

Tom Roebuck scored two of Sale's six tries

Gallagher Premiership

Sale (28) 43

Tries: Reed 2, Penalty, Addison, Roebuck 2 Cons: R du Preez 4 Pen: Curtis

Newcastle (3) 10

Try: Chick Con: Grayson Pen: Grayson

Sale Sharks moved up to second in the early-season Premiership table as they inflicted another defeat on struggling Newcastle Falcons.

Two tries from Arron Reed, a penalty try and one from Will Addison had secured the bonus point before half-time as Sharks made it three wins out of four this season.

Tom Roebuck added two more tries after the break as Sale kept up their 100% home record to sit one point behind leaders Saracens.

Newcastle's only try came courtesy of Callum Chick. Falcons remain bottom without a point as their Premiership losing streak extends to 25 games.

Billed as ‘derby weekend’ by Premiership Rugby, this match pitted together the two northern teams in the competition, albeit separated by 152 miles.

But while Sale are the current northern powerhouse after finishing second and fourth in the last two campaigns, Newcastle cannot shake off being the Premiership’s whipping boys, having lost all 18 of their matches last season.

Their task of gaining a first league win since March 2023 seemed unlikely at the Salford Community Stadium, where Sale had only lost one of their last 18 Premiership games.

That was in evidence within the opening five minutes as the home side’s first spell of pressure resulted in Reed expertly gathering Rob du Preez’s kick and racing in at the corner for his first Premiership try of this campaign.

A penalty from Ethan Grayson put the Falcons on the board, but they had no answer to Sale’s sharper attack as brilliant handling from full-back Joe Carpenter while he hit the line put Reed away to grab his second score.

Arron Reed scored two tries before going off injured

Worse was to come as Newcastle harshly conceded a penalty try with captain Chick sent to the sin-bin after being adjudged to have illegally brought down a maul to prevent a score.

The hosts took advantage of the extra man to grab a try-scoring bonus point by the break. Addison powered over at short range from Gus Warr’s quick play from behind the scrum for his first try since returning to the club in the summer.

A fifth try arrived early in the second half when captain Ben Curry provided the assist for winger Roebuck to show off his finishing skills.

Newcastle did manage a try of their own when Chick got the ball down in front of the posts and Sale’s Luke Cowan-Dickie was sin-binned in the process.

But that was a rare bright spot on another chastening evening, which ended with Roebuck claiming Du Preez’s teasing high kick and diving over, as he underlined why he will be a strong contender to play for England in the autumn internationals next month with four tries already in the league.

Backed by their rock-solid home form, Sale again look to be strong contenders for a top-four finish as they head to champions Northampton Saints next Friday.

As for Newcastle, a home match against winless Exeter Chiefs on the same evening could offer the glimmer of hope of somehow getting over the victory line and ending their 19-month winless run.

'We were beaten all over the shop'

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson said:

"So often these games end up being very niggly and a poor game where everything slows down at the breakdown.

“But we didn’t let that happen tonight so that’s a sign of distance travelled from other years.

(On Newcastle): "Steve is under-resourced, definitely. It's not a nice place to be when you have to keep motivating the group to be what they need to be to be competitive. So I don't envy his position."

Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond said:

“We were beaten all over the shop. We couldn’t keep hold of the ball when we had it and when we turned it over, they capitalised on it very well.

“They’re a good side and if we come across teams like this, we’re going to struggle with the wherewithal and personnel we’ve got out.

“We can’t control the game at the moment with Ethan [Grayson] at 10. He’s a centre and he’s doing a grand job, but we’re a week or two away from the 10s coming back.

“The job in hand is keeping the gang that we’ve got motivated until the end of the season so we can achieve the goal of staying in the competition.”

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, Addison, Bedlow, Reed; R du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, Cowan-Dickie, Harper, Bamber, Andrews, Van Rhyn, B Curry, T Curry.

Replacements: Caine, Onasanya, Opoku-Fordjour, Beaumont, D du Preez, Thomas, Curtis, Dugdale.

Sin-bin: Cowan-Dickie (50)

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo; Radwan, Spencer, Hutchison, Stevenson; Grayson, Stuart; Brocklebank, Blamire, Palframan, Rubiolo, Hawkins, Van der Walt, Gordon, Chick.

Replacements: Fletcher, Du Bruin, McCallum, Lockwood, Scott, Davis, Metcalf, Brown.

Sin-bin: Chick (29)

Referee: Karl Dickson