Sale Sharks overpowered Scarlets 36-17 in their LV Cup clash in Salford on Saturday. Danny Cipriani kicked 21 points, including a try, four penalties, and a conversion, but the hit of the match came from crowd favourite Sam Tuitupou. Despite starting slowly, Sale moved to the top of Pool 2 following the bonus point win that came about through tries to Richie Vernon, Charlie Amesbury, Charlie Ingall, and Cipriani. "We made a couple of mistakes in the first 10 or 15 minutes and we paid dearly for it. We had to get four tries to get any chance of progressing but now we know if we go to Wasps and win we've got a great chance of progressing," said director of rugby Steve Diamond. Scarlets had led 14-3 after a two early tries, but Sale pulled things back and in the second half with the scoreline looking comfortable, they snuffed out any hopes of the visitors adding to their total. Turnover ball was swung wide as an overlap looked on, but the floated pass from flyhalf Owen Williams left centre Gareth Maule vulnerable, as the former All Black lined him up and smashed him. Maule took it well, despite it being one of the more spectacular hits of the season so far.

Click here to view the full post More...