London Welsh 12 - 52 Sale Sharks

Sale Sharks avoided a potential banana skid as they made an emphatic return to Premiership action Sunday, cruising to a 52-12 victory over rock-bottom London Welsh. So one-sided was the game that, as a contest, it was largely over by half-time at which points Sale were 35 points and five tries to the good.

Positives

• Without ever really having to leave first gear, Sale were able to rack up 50+ points on an almost certainly-doomed Welsh team. The Sale pack mullered their Oxford counterparts all game, the backs looked lively and dangerous and Sale's goalline defence and breakdown work was superb all game. 
  
• I've never been Nick MacLeod's biggest advocate but he certainly did a very capable job standing in for Danny Cipriani today. MacLeod had the backs running good lines, held up well defensively and kicked superbly, going 4-for-5 (on some admittedly tough kicks) from the tee. Whether he'd be able to replicate this performance against a top-six team is still uncertain but to his credit MacLeod played what was in front of him very well.
• Dave Seymour had an outstanding 80-minute game and surprisingly outshone fellow backrower Dan Braid with a wonderful individual performance. An absolute fiend at the breakdown and an opportunistic thief of the loose balls Sale's defence pressured from Welsh possession, Seymour had an exemplary day in Oxford.
• Sale's back three of Tom Arscott, Will Addison and Mike Haley were a formidable trio in today's game racking up five tries between themselves and creating dangerous opportunities each time any time any of them had the ball. Those three will (deservedly) take the plaudits, however the entire Sale team showed some wonderful ball-handling throughout including some excellent counterattacking moves that resulted in three separate tries.
• Sale's goalline defence proved increasingly impenetrable holding up Welsh on their own try-line on a number of occasions in the first half - some excellent bend-but-don't-break stuff. Eifon Lewis-Roberts was especially impressive in this regard. But also worth noting, quite bizarrely, is that twice Sale were able to prevent breakaway tries from Welsh due to, in the first instance, some incredible defensive chasing down by Tom Arscott where the Welsh wing had the try-line beckoning. This was later followed by a fantastic try-saving interception from Chris Cusiter who was faced with a 2-on-1 in his own 22 before turning said interception into a sweeping counterattack that saw Tom Arscott touch down 80 metres further down the pitch. 
• Eight tries. Great to see. 

Negatives

• Not a great deal to report here. As I have hopefully inferred it was very much a case of job done for a superior Sale team at the Kassam today. However the Sale lineout was notably below-average helmed by a returning Tommy Taylor. Sale's lineout success hovered below 75% and many of the throws they did win were not processed or recycled cleanly often leading to knock-ons or offsides at the maul. If Taylor is to lead Sale at hooker next season, he and Josh Beaumont need to develop a more coherent system for the set-piece because it struggled today.
• Tom Arscott was forced off with an injury sustained in scoring his second try following a delightful chip ahead from Mike Haley. Arscott has proven to be a revelation for Sale on the wing so far this season and he has been, alongside Addison and Haley, one of Sale's most electrifying attacking players this season. Losing Arscott - who is Sale's leading try scorer this season - for any number of weeks with some crucial fixtures coming up would be a massive loss, so here's hoping it isn't anything serious.

Sale move up to 6th with today's win and are now only two points out of the play-off places. Up next they face Saracens on Saturday knowing they could potentially leapfrog the Fez Heads into the top-four with a victory. Saracens at home will be a very different challenge to today's game however.