Bath on a glowing autumnal afternoon is not an unpleasant place to be unless, these days, you happen to be the opposition. Sale travelled to the south-west desperate to prove a point after last Friday’s thrashing at Northampton but were swiftly overwhelmed by Bath’s slick, muscular approach in attack and defence.
An improving outfit went top – overhauling Bristol, who ran rings around Saints on Friday – with the South Africa prop Thomas du Toit creating one and scoring one of six tries.
Will Muir and the captain, Miles Reid, crossed before the break and Ted Hill, Tom Carr-Smith and Francois Van Wyk completed what became a second consecutive thumping for Sale. Will Butt of Bath and Sale’s Nye Thomas were shown red cards after half-time, both for dangerous tackles, but neither incident affected the result.
“We got beat thoroughly with 15 on 15 and got beat thoroughly again when it was 14 on 14,” said Sale’s director of rugby, Alex Sanderson. “So you can’t argue with the result, can you?”
Sanderson and his Bath counterpart, Johann van Graan, made seven changes to their starting XVs and both had five players depart for England’s warm weather camp in Girona. But the similarities mostly ended there. Crucially for Bath, Finn Russell lined up at fly-half, while Sale’s George Ford continues his injury rehabilitation within the England camp.
Sale’s start could hardly have been worse. Du Toit, soon to link up with South Africa for their autumn campaign, immediately produced a sublime offload to Muir, who scorched over the try-line after 65 seconds.
Guy Pepper’s clever pick-and-go took Bath within a couple of metres, allowing Reid to bash over on 20 minutes. Du Toit’s cute dummy and speedy finish left Tadgh McElroy, Sale’s debutant hooker, grasping at thin air six minutes later.
The Sale prop James Harper had coughed up three scrum penalties in the first 15 minutes and was hooked after half an hour, Asher Opoku-Fordjour’s introduction stabilising the visitors’ set-piece. But they trailed 21-6 at half time.
Hill capitalised on more uncharacteristically slack defence to clinch the bonus point before Butt, Bath’s inside centre, was shown a red card by Karl Dickson for upending Le Roux Roets.
Bath’s prop Beno Obano had led the hosts out on his 150th appearance, and was withdrawn on 55 minutes to a grateful ovation. Sale then stirred when Joe Carpenter’s beautiful grubber was finished off by a diving Will Addison.
Robert du Preez stroked over the conversion but an unlikely comeback evaporated when Thomas was dismissed for an upright tackle on Muir as the wing dove for the corner. Carr-Smith and Van Wyk completed Bath’s overwhelming victory.
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“Some man,” Van Graan said of Obano. “We gave him his cap in the changing room and you just needed to listen to the applause to appreciate the calibre of the man. What he’s done for the club in good and bad times.
“Getting a red card in [last season’s Premiership] final, how he’s dealt with that not only as a player and a human being, is an example to all.”
Bath are increasingly the real deal but Sale have hard work ahead. “I know I’m going to put it right,” said Sanderson, adding that the Premiership’s four-week break for the autumn internationals comes at a good time. “We are going to put it right as a group and we know what to put right, which is to be better defensively.”
