the times | Friday August 28 2020 2GM 65
Rugby unionSport
The first three rounds of matches since
the restart of the Gallagher Premier-
ship suggest that the absence of crowds
is helping to cancel out home advan-
tage. Of the 18 matches played in the
past two weeks, home sides have won
only nine times, compared with the 62
per cent win rate over the first 13 rounds
before lockdown.
“There’s no advantage home and
away with no crowds,” Steve Diamond,
the Sale Sharks director of rugby, said
yesterday.
With new interpretations around the
breakdown being introduced and high
penalty counts across many games, the
requirement to get on the right side of
the referee has been paramount and
another aspect in which home teams
may be deriving less benefit than usual.
“What has always given home
advantage is that referees do get a bit of
pressure from home crowds,” Diamond
said. “If there’s no home crowd, the
referee should be more accurate.”
A further feature of the opening
hemisphere teams, who are remaining
closer to home to play against each
other. The Six Nations countries are in
desperate need of revenue after their fi-
nances were badly hit by the pandemic.
A statement for the Six Nations
unions said: “The Six Nations are work-
ing hard to finalise plans for a proposed
competition replacing, for 2020, the
autumn internationals that have been
impacted by the pandemic.”
If Japan confirm their withdrawal,
Georgia are thought to be the most
likely replacements. Levan Maisashvili,
the Georgia head coach, said yesterday
that his union would seek to overcome
any potential logistical issues in order
to play in “such a great tournament” but
that they would require a formal
invitation first.
Japan had been due to host England
in June this year and to play autumn
internationals in Scotland and Ireland,
but all those matches have been
cancelled.was also based around the lineout,
Damian de Allende, the centre,
thundering off the top, De Klerk
kicking slow, driven ball. Diamond
has Tuilagi, Janse van Rensburg and
Sam Hill, all heavy-duty carriers.
And, like South Africa, a defence
more parsimonious than their rivals.
Sale as the Springboks.
When De Jager made his angular
way from the bench into the fray
around the hour mark, the quality of
Tuesday’s lineouts improved. The
scrappy ball against Harlequins was a
thing of the recent past as he roamed
up and down the set piece, winninggood ball at will. He is not just an
outstanding jumper but a hugely
regarded leader of the lineout.
Sale’s forwards coach, Dorian West,
has been here before. Late in his career
as a Northampton coach, the Saints
signed an ageing Victor Matfield.
One of the greatest lineout
forwards of the professional era, for
some reason Matfield was not —
according to a number of
Northampton players of that time and
a few of his South African mates
plying their trade in the country —
welcomed into the inner sanctum of
the Saints decision-makers.
It seems unlikely that the former
England hooker will make the same
reputed mistake; especially as his
director of rugby, Diamond, was
himself one of the best hookers in
England during his playing days. It
will be fascinating to see whether the
outstanding footballing skills of the
South African hooker, Akker van der
Merwe, are on show again from the
kick-off.
He is a bundle of furious energy
with no little skill but an errant
throwing arm is one hell of a
weakness for a hooker. Curtis
Langdon, his regular cover, isn’t a
crowd pleaser but he is more accurate
where it matters most for Sale. It was
the same with South Africa in the
World Cup. Bongi Mbonambi lacks
the stunning all-field game of
Malcolm Marx, but set-piece solidity
trumped all else.
Sale will struggle if the Bears
rampage in the loose. If Sale control
the set piece, and with it territory,
they can remind followers of fashion
that rugby is not a beauty contest, no
matter how much we wish it were
otherwise.MI NEWS & SPORT/ALAMYrulings on selecting overseas players.
As the stakes get greater, Faf de Klerk
is likely to sharpen his focus and raise
his game.
Back to the lineout in Coventry
on Tuesday. Of the initial 12 points
Sale scored, nine of them were
directly from clean lineout possession.
Twice, Rohan Janse van Rensburg
clattered over the gainline to win
penalties as a Wasps breakdown
operation, so impressive against
Northampton, gave three-point
penalties away. Brutal, basic and
effective.
In the World Cup, the game planDe Jager, the Springboks lock, is the cornerstone of a Sale lineout that, if firing,
will allow them to follow South Africa’s World Cup-winning blueprint for successT
hey are third in the
Gallagher Premiership but
Sale Sharks appear to have
fast fallen out of fashion. In
their place are the newly
beloved Bristol Bears who travel to
the North West tomorrow.
The Sharks were all the rage before
rugby’s resumption but even their
director of rugby, Steve Diamond, all
but dismissed them as potential
champions after a dismal opening
performance against Harlequins at
the Twickenham Stoop and defeat at
home by Exeter Chiefs.
Exeter are rightly regarded as the
hottest of favourites to win it all this
year. They followed up victory at Sale
with success against a strong Bristol
side at Ashton Gate, playing what was
almost an entire second team bar
perhaps Olly Woodburn, the wing
who is now injured. They will take
some beating.
But if any side can spoil the party, it
is Sale and their South Africans.
There is nothing elegant about them.
Their defence has conceded fewer
points than any Premiership club.
They have an extensive range of ball-
carriers to dominate the gainline. The
risk element to their game is low.
Most of their tactical play is dictated
from scrum half. If the lineout,
boosted by the presence of Lood de
Jager, a World Cup-winning South
African expert at the set piece,
Only ugly but
effective Sale
can prevent a
title procession
functions as Diamond expects, Sale
will dictate where and how they want
to play; the way South Africa won the
World Cup.
The set piece is central to Sale, as it
was to Springbok strategy. The
lineout produced little decent
possession on Sale’s losing return to
action — or should that be inaction
— against Harlequins. Manu Tuilagi,
who joined from Leicester Tigers last
month, was anonymous. The big man
ambled aimlessly around.
But it was another matter against
Exeter. Yes, the Chiefs ran out
comfortable winners but not before
the England centre had run over a
few players to set up one try and
produced an unexpected soft pass
with Exeter suckered into his orbit by
his very presence. The lineout, a
shambles in round 14, was a catalyst
for 14 rapid points against Exeter one
game later.
On Tuesday it didn’t start well for a
much-changed Sale side against
Wasps. Possession wasn’t clean and
Wasps were the pack driving the set
piece. After 28 mediocre minutes BT
produced a statistic showing Sale
making 88 per cent of their plays off
scrum half. Wasps, on a filthy night
where scrum halves were bound to
kick more, were 48 per cent in
comparison. It was a staggering
discrepancy. Then again, Sale are
tactically built around a World Cup-
winning game plan.
Why not, when you have a World
Cup-winning scrum half, as adroit a
box-kicker as any on the planet? Call
it the “Faf factor”. But he has yet to
discover the form or the accuracy in
his kicking game that forced the
Springboks head coach Rassie
Erasmus to bend the South AfricanStuart Barnes
Sale Sharks
Exeter Chiefs
Bristol Bears
Gloucester
Saracens
Bath
Wasps
Northampton Saints
Harlequins
Leicester Tigers
Worcester Warriors
London IrishJust like South Africa during the World
Cup, Sale Sharks base their game on
defence and have conceded the fewest
tries in the Premiership this seasonStingy Sharks
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35
35
38
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41
44
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57Autumn tournament hit by
Japan’s decision to pull out
John WesterbyEmpty grounds cut home advantage
rounds since the lockdown has been the
way teams have encouraged support
staff and reserve players at the ground
to make as much noise as possible,
creating their own atmosphere to com-
pensate for the lack of crowd reaction.
“I think your support staff and
your [extra] players can add
energy from the sidelines,”
Lee Blackett, the Wasps
head coach, said yester-
day. “We saw it in our
first game [against
Northampton]. You
didn’t hear any fake
whooping and hollering.
It’s just guys that
genuinely care.”
Exeter Chiefs have stretched
their lead at the top of the table to 11
points, with away victories in the past
week against their closest pursuers,
Sale Sharks and Bristol Bears. They, too,
have picked up on the value of their
support staff making noise.
“That was the feedback from the first
game, the lads were encouraged
because they get to hear the guys in thestands, so we can absolutely create that
energy and enthusiasm,” Ali Hepher,
the Exeter head coach, said. “Using that
psychology around the grounds when
they’re empty is an important thing.”
It has not quite become a shouting
contest in the Premiership, but
the off-field wall of noise can
be viewed as an extension
of the sense of theatre that
teams have tried to
create in recent years.
Wings will rush 40
yards to pat the back-
sides of props who have
won a scrum penalty,
while excessive celebra-
tions of refereeing decisions
are designed to encourage
team-mates and deflate opponents.
On the field, the players appreciate
the support at key moments. “I’ve really
noticed it on the pitch when those
moments do come in, you can hear
them from the sidelines,” Jack Willis,
the Wasps flanker, said. “As a whole
group, whether you’re starting or you’re
not involved, it’s a squad effort.”John Westerby
Plans for an eight-team tournament to
replace the autumn internationals have
been thrown into disarray, with Japan
deciding against taking part due to
complications caused by coronavirus.
Foreign arrivals to Japan have
recently been restricted, preventing
Jamie Joseph, the Japan head coach,
from returning from his home in New
Zealand to work with his players. Other
members of his backroom staff are in a
similar situation which would impact
the team’s preparations.
For the tournament due to run from
November 14 to December 5, Japan
were placed in a group with Scotland,
France and Italy, while the other group
would comprise England, Wales,
Ireland and Fiji. The competition,
which would follow the delayed conclu-
sion of the Six Nations, was introduced
to replace the programme of autumn
internationals with major southern62%
Win rate at home before
the lockdown in the
Premiership — it has
dropped to 50 per cent in
the three rounds since
the restart