Aviva Premiership: Worcester v Sale Sharks full-time report

Andy Goode

Worcester 23 Sale Sharks 16

It is now seven losses out of seven for Sale Sharks after Andy Goode produced a storming performance from fly-half for Worcester.

The former England international is nicknamed ‘the points machine’, and he took 18 of the home side’s 23 points on Friday night, scoring a superb second half try in the corner and kicking two conversions and three penalties.

It means Sale remain winless, despite every effort to get themselves off the mark after a summer of promise. This week they re-hired former head coach, the Australian John Mitchell, to help current boss Bryan Redpath get of of this rut, but they were unable to do so at Sixways.

Confidence is clearly at an all-time low, and they put up what little fight they could to a Worcester side much improved this season. England’s Mark Cueto, who missed out on an international call-up for the autumn internationals this week, fired the away side into a fifth minute lead – bursting through the line after Goode’s third minute penalty had put Worcester on the board.

Another of Sale’s big names and a prospective England international, Danny Cipriani, missed the conversion however and Goode was able to restore the lead with another well taken penalty in the ninth minute.

Cipriani did kick over finally to take Sale back into a 8-6 lead but it became a 16-8 half-time lead for Worcester when David Lemi capped off a spell of Worcester dominance before the interval. Goode converted, and then added a penalty with two first half minutes remaining and send Sale back to the dressing room dejected.

But they rallied and came out fighting when the match restarted, with Cipriani kicking another penalty successfully before Nick Macleod’s 59th minute try brought the scores level at 16-16. But again Cipriani missed the chance for some valuable extras.

And so Goode rallied his own troops and made the Sharks pay for their shortcomings, replying just six minutes later with a bullish run to the corner and then his conversion proved enough as he missed a late penalty to take the game that bit further beyond the Sharks.

Lyall Thomas

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