Thursday may be the new Friday in some walks of life but when it comes to Prem rugby, the jury is still out. Sale’s victory over Gloucester to kick off the new season was workmanlike, enough to earn a bonus point but left you suspecting that our parents might have been right all along: do not play out on a school night.
Tries from Tom Roebuck, Nathan Jibulu, Joe Carpenter and Hyron Andrews gave the Sharks a winning start to the campaign, founded on set-piece power, a route one approach and George Ford’s supreme game management. Not all Prem matches have to be try-fests – we may come to yearn for agricultural contests such as these later in the season – but this season opener will not win many beauty points. It was not the spectacle with which to launch a rebranded competition considering how willing both sides were to put boot to ball.
