Sale Sharks 30-29 London Irish

James Walker-Roberts • Published 11 Sep 2011 09:30 0 Comments

LONDON Irish surrendered a half-time lead to suffer an agonising one-point defeat at Sale Sharks in their second game of the Aviva Premiership season.

Exiles head coach Toby Booth made five changes from the side that lost at Twickenham, with Clarke Dermody, Alex Gray, Darren Allinson, Steve Shingler and Leo Halavatau all starting.

And the new-look Irish team got off to the worst possible start as Rob Miller fed Henry Thomas to score after just three minutes.

The visitors responded strongly to going behind and Tom Homer kicked the first of his five penalties to get them on the board.

A period of sustained Exiles pressure then culminated with David Paice touching down, with Homer adding the extras.

Sale regained the lead when James Gaskell burst from inside the Irish 22-metre line to score.

However, after Homer and Nick MacLeod traded penalties, Irish grabbed the final try of the half when Dan Bowden made a strong run and fed Jonathan Joseph, who had too much pace for the defence as he scored in the corner.

MacLeod kicked a penalty to make it 23-20 at the break but the Sale fly-half then missed the opportunity to level the scores in the 43rd minute.

And Irish also spurned a chance to score as Marland Yarde failed to touch down after an excellent move.

Homer did extend Exiles' lead to six points with a penalty but Sale then scored the decisive try when Dwayne Peel jinked through the defence and touched down.

MacLeod added the extras and Rob Miller scored a long-range penalty to make it 30-26.

With a few minutes remaining, Homer opted to kick for goal rather than for touch and although his penalty secured a bonus point, Irish were unable to find another score to snatch victory.

Toby Booth's men face another away trip when they travel to Northampton Saints on Saturday (3pm ko).

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This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 11 Sep 11

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