Injury scare for Ben Curry in Sale's bruising defeat by La Rochelle

Sale Sharks 24 La Rochelle 37

England flanker Ben Curry suffered an injury scare as Sale Sharks were eliminated from the knockout stages of the Champions Cup by two-time champions La Rochelle, whose victory was not quite as comfortable as the scoreline suggests.

Sale were already down to the bare bones entering this winner-takes-all fixture at a sold-out AJ Bell Stadium with 12 players, including Manu Tuilagi, Tom Curry and an entire battalion of looseheads on the injured list. Unfortunately, a few more of those bare bones were cracked and crunched.

Second row Jonny Hill suffered a suspected dislocated kneecap, which entailed a lengthy stoppage. His replacement Tom Ellis soon departed the fray and in turn his replacement Dan Du Preez did not last the course, meaning Sale finished the game with 14 men, including three props.

In the face of the adversity, there was plenty of northern grit on display. Curry rolled his left ankle but despite barely being able to stand on it still managed to win a turnover. Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson hopes he will still be available for England’s Six Nations Championship campaign which begins against Italy on February 3. “Ben’s going to England, I think he’s all right,” Sanderson said. “He just rolled his ankle. I think he’ll be fine. He’s got a week in Girona, I think he’ll be good to go a week after that.”

Tumy Onasanya, the 21-year-old, faced what must be the most foreboding Champions Cup first start a loosehead can imagine opposite the near 50-stone tighthead axis of Uini Atonio and Will Skelton. Sale’s scrum was sent shuntering backwards on a couple of occasions, but they also won a couple of engagements with Onasanya lasting the 80 minutes.

No one brought the fight more than scrum half Gus Warr who was trying to pick a battle with both Atonio and Skelton, sometimes simultaneously, which was a bit like a demented honey badger going after a pack of lions.

Still all that feistiness could not stop Sale falling into a 30-0 hole from which they failed to recover. Playing into a fair portion of Storm Isha, Sale opted to keep ball in hand in the first half. Some of it made for thrilling rugby. In the early moments, Arron Reed fielded a high ball, cutting in field just in front of the La Rochelle kick chase to engineer an edge for the off-balance Du Preez who seemed to stumble his way through three would-be tackles. Sam James then produced a gorgeous back-of-the-hand offload but Warr’s potentially try-scoring pass to Tom Roebuck was deflected, some would say knocked on, by Levani Botia. Roebuck gathered the loose ball but was a fingertip away from grounding the ball and referee Chris Busby ruled any knock-on was unintentional.

Sale’s bad luck continued as Du Preez’s kick was charged down by Yoan Tanga, La Rochelle’s converted back-row centre, and the ball fell kindly for Dillyn Leyds to scoop up and outpace the covering defence.

The principle of running the ball out from 22 in the face of a gale was countered by the fact that Sale were running straight into the arms of an even more potent storm in the form of Botia, the greatest jackaller in the sport, and France captain Gregory Alldritt. Kicking beautifully in the conditions, Antoine Hastoy added three penalties, two from turnovers, to give La Rochelle a 16-0 half-time advantage.

With the wind behind them that was not an insurmountable lead for Sale to overcome but it soon became that way. With Sale attacking deep in the La Rochelle 22 that man Botia swooped over a prone ball-carrier and the turnover attack was on. UJ Seuteni led the breakout and fed Hastoy, who showed an impressive turn of pace for the score. Then Botia appeared on the wing to initiate another attack which was finished by scrum half Tawera Kerr-Barlow. Game over.

“There were massive momentum swings, we’re in their 22 and they end up scoring down the other end,” Sanderson said. “It blows the scoreline out, which I don’t think was a fair reflection of how competitive the game was. I felt we matched them on the gameline, probably showed more endeavour in attack, we maybe overreached, which provided some easy points-scoring opportunities. We gifted them a lot of their points. A lot of what we did went to plan, but a missed touch, a couple of turnovers in the 22 and you end up back under your own sticks, it’s crushing.”

There have been plenty of capitulations in this tournament but Sale were determined not to wave the white flag. Both Roebuck and Reed had tries disallowed for feet in touch before finally Roebuck did cross in the corner. After both Hastoy and Brice Dulin were sent to the sin-bin, Agustin Creevy scored from a maul, although Ford then immediately threw an intercept try to Seuteni. With the game now gone, Sam Dugdale and Telusa Veainu crossed for a bonus point score and a measure of pride.