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Sun 27 Jan 2013 | 11:42
Sam Tuitupou's massive crash tackle on Gareth Maule

15
Comments

Sale Sharks overpowered Scarlets 36-17 in their LV Cup clash in Salford on Saturday. Danny Cipriani scored 21 points, including a try, four penalties, and two conversions, 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.

Posted By: Grant Constable

15 Comments

  • browner
    5:37 PM 01/02/2013

    Oh........ & the correct Penalty decision would have been AGAINST red3 for lying over the ball preventing Sales valid counter ruck from gaining possession.

  • browner
    5:10 PM 01/02/2013

    Agree ............ & the icing on the cake was the instigation of a counter ruck 100% superb play ....."loud applause from me"

  • rugbydump
    5:17 PM 29/01/2013

    Well spotted. Throw an extra conversion in there

  • heavyhooker
    2:48 AM 29/01/2013

    After Tuitupou does the clear out he pivots around the ruck with his hand on one of the players and I think that is why the ref blew the whistle, even though he did not commit into the ruck at that time. A bit quick on the whistle on the part of the ref. I would love to use this hit and recovery as a "how to" for my junior club; that was textbook - read, wrap, hit, up, recover and hit again.

  • stroudos
    11:20 PM 28/01/2013

    But I've watched it a few times now and can't see any Sale players coming in from the side. Quality clearout by Tuitupou too.

  • kadova
    9:59 PM 28/01/2013

    I think the referee said "offside" for the players coming in from the side of the ruck.

  • keenan7
    7:28 PM 28/01/2013

    Maybe Gareth owes Owen money.....hes got too...

    youve got to applaud him for getting right back up after he was smashed

  • jadawin
    6:47 PM 28/01/2013

    hospital pass, nothing else...

  • guy
    3:22 PM 28/01/2013

    Ecellent tackle! It's not that the pass is so bad as much as Tuitupou reading the play very well.

  • guy
    3:20 PM 28/01/2013

    Can't hear what the ref says. The drive is excellent but after he comes out at the other end he is mometarily 'of his feet'. Maybe that's why he called the penalty. Looks harsh but might be correct.

  • stroudos
    11:24 AM 28/01/2013

    Agreed! Although it looked like a reasonable pass when the ball left Williams's hands! Well read by Tuitupou.

  • stroudos
    11:21 AM 28/01/2013

    Definitely nothing to do with the tackle. Sounds like the ref called "in at the side", but I don't think any of the Sale players are guilty of that. Maybe the ref thought Tuitupou was trying to rejoin the ruck from the wrong side after driving through (0:25), which is obviously not the case. Could be bloke in headband nearest to us just after that?

    Bullshit call as far as I can see and an unfortunate result for Sale after a great tackle and good breakdown work.

  • stroudos
    11:16 AM 28/01/2013

    Quite sensible by Maule I think. Looks like he saw the big man flying in, realised he was about to be smashed and, rather than resist and get hurt, just absorbed the hit and started thinking of ways to keep the ball alive - slightly inaccurate with the offload but a decent effort considering...

  • stroudos
    11:14 AM 28/01/2013

    Bosh. Tremendous tackle.

    Commentator put it pretty well - "sliced in half".

    Even more impressive is how Tuitupou's straight back on his feet to tackle the next man - in the words of Dave Grohl "Done and I'm onto the next one!"

  • drg
    4:07 AM 28/01/2013

    It actually wasn't as "car accident-y" as others, even though it was sort of just as big...

    I mean, if you take the famous Houggard-Lima, um, Rodgers-Lewsey etc there is some real whiplash looking snaps from the player being tackled, but this tackle even though it looked just as big, didn't have the same whiplash snapping motion. Almost like Maule's momentum was not going forward so much or something..

    Brilliant tackle though.

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