Sale director of rugby Kingsley Jones believes complacency cost the Sharks success at Newcastle on Sunday.
Sale and Newcastle bosses left dissatisfied with scrappy draw
Sale director of rugby Kingsley Jones believes complacency cost the Sharks success at Newcastle on Sunday.
The visitors had beaten defending champions Leicester 15-12 in their opening Guinness Premiership fixture but, despite Mark Cueto's stunning first-half try, needed two late penalties from outside-half Lee Thomas to secure a 16-16 draw at Kingston Park.
And Jones was disappointed that his team chose to attempt to play a wide attacking game rather than keeping it tight and putting pressure on their opponents.
"That was two points dropped in my opinion. In the first half we did not respect Newcastle and we tried to score every time we got the ball," he said.
"We did not commit numbers to the ruck and go forward first, we entered into a game that Newcastle wanted to play, a loose, fragmented game with them throwing it about.
"The game plan was to put the ball in behind their inexperienced back three and it wasn't until the final 30 minutes that we entered into that plan. But if that had gone on another five minutes I think we would have won it.
"Lee Thomas did a great job stepping in for Charlie Hodgson, though, and it is a real positive that he can play 80 minutes at 10 for us."
Frustration
Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates was also an unhappy man and felt his side had made "daft" errors at key moments as they drew their second straight Guinness Premiership clash, having drawn 9-9 at Leeds last weekend.
The Falcons points came courtesy of Rob Vickerman's try and three penalties and a conversion from fly-half Jimmy Gopperth, but ill-discipline in the final quarter saw them throw away a 16-10 lead.
"We should really have won two out of two, we created far more pressure than Sale and we should have finished it off," he said.
"It was a big step forward from last week's performance but we have to make sure we make the right decisions and are more clinical.
"They took their opportunities but we gave them to them on a plate. We made some really daft errors in the second half that allowed Sale to pull it back."
