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Newcastle 9 Sale Sharks 14

Jenny Dixon
10/ 9/2008

THE only Premiership ground never before conquered by Sharks finally fell on Sunday, to a single try by Charlie Hodgson.

After 16 unsuccessful trips to Kingston Park, Sharks broke the Tyneside jinx with a 14-9 victory.

It was a conservative scoreline for two teams who, on this ground in recent years, have run in five tries or more between them in each game.

Such was the importance of ending the hoodoo, Philippe Saint-Andre was content for his side to subdue their attacking ambitions and focus instead on an impermeable defence.

The tactic, which was also a necessity owing to the wet pitch, paid off.

Mathew Tait had been the focus of attention before the game, returning to his former stomping ground, going head to head with his younger brother Alex and making his league debut for Sharks.

But it was long-serving fly-half Hodgson, a veteran of disappointment in the north-east, who gave Sharks the lead that they refused to relinquish.

Slack defending from Newcastle ushered Hodgson across the whitewash after 12 minutes, he slid past Alex Tait and Tom May and touched down in the corner.

Hodgson missed the difficult conversion, his final spot kick of the game.

Instead Luke McAlister assumed the kicking duties, furthering Sharks’ lead to eight points on 20 minutes.

Newcastle were missing their England hero Jonny Wilkinson, in his place was 18-year-old Rory Clegg, making his Premiership debut. Clegg showed no signs of nerves as he struck two penalties through the uprights, the latter rebounding off the inside of the post .

Sharks fullback Tait had a close encounter with the tryline - he raced along the wing only to be denied just metres away by his former team-mate scrum-half James Grindal.

McAlister scored a second penalty just before the break to give the visitors an 11-6 lead.

After the interval McAlister boosted Sharks’ lead to 14-6 with a penalty, but they never annulled the attacking threat posed by the Falcons and Clegg’s drop goal put the hosts within five points.

Matters worsened for Sale when flanker Luke Abraham, making his league debut for Sharks, was sent to the sin-bin for a late tackle.

Despite being reduced to 14-men Sharks’ guts and resolve in defence kept Newcastle out and halted the Tyneside jinx and got Sale off to a winning start in this year’s Premiership campaign.