Ulster held scoreless and brutally exposed by Sale Sharks in Champions Cup opener

Sale Sharks 39 (Curry, D du Preez, R du Preez, Curtis, McGuigan, Reed tries; R du Preez pen, 3 cons) Ulster 0

There was nowhere to hide here as Ulster were brutally exposed in this Champions Cup opener, Sale Sharks swatting them aside to score six tries at the AJ Bell Stadium while the visitors were embarrassingly unable to register any points at all.

Trailing 15-0 after a limp first half performance, Ulster, who were at times shambolic, found no way back into this entirely one-sided contest and are now under huge pressure to avoid another highly damaging result when hosting champions La Rochelle on Saturday.

It was difficult to escape the manner of Ulster’s heavy loss to Leinster in the URC having had an impact on this limp performance though the northern province’s disputed travel arrangements for Sunday’s game were of no benefit either. Dan McFarland’s side were unable to fly out on Saturday evening due to a cancelled flight forcing them to fly out on the morning of the game.

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Having said all that, none of Ulster’s big-game players were on point for this one where a combination of Sale’s power game and the visitors’ ill-discipline and inability to put anything of significance in place either side of the ball ensured there could only be one outcome.

It only took a quarter hour for the home side to make the breakthrough. Following a Manu Tuilagi charge from lineout ball, Sale moved left and found a hole between Alan O’Connor and Rob Herring with Rob du Preez’s offload inside to Arron Reed allowing the winger to find Curry whose strength propelled him over the line despite Nick Timoney’s valiant effort to hold him up.

Rob Du Preez missed the conversion, but Sale seemed to have the edge and quickly found their way to Ulster’s line again when Akker van der Merwe was initially held up by Herring before rolling over the other side of the ruck to touchdown.

A lengthy consultation between Mathieu Raynal and the TMO resulted in the call that Van der Merwe had been held up and Ulster won a reprieve.

But Sale hit back from another penalty, Fergus Warr tapping and running through a hole which ought to have been manned by Matty Rea. After Warr was held short, Dan du Preez rumbled forward from close range, smashing through Herring to score. This time Rob du Preez got the extra points.

The Sale outhalf then took it out to 15-0 after O’Toole was pinged at a breakdown but on the half-hour another maul and drive to the line saw Jonny Hill held up but still resulted in Duane Vermeulen being yellow-carded.

Ulster lost James Hume shortly afterwards to an HIA and though Andy Warwick escaped any sanction for a head-to-head collision with Manu Tuilagi, resulting in the England centre’s departure, the visitors were turned over in a rare incursion into Sale’s 22 when Herring was wrapped up at the back of a maul.

Ulster were likely relieved to make it to half-time having conceded just the 15 points.

This situation had to be rectified at the start of the new half but, again, Ulster were penalised several times in the opening exchanges by Mathieu Raynal and the net result was Rob du Preez scoring on 48 minutes after Nathan Doak missed him and the Sale 10 then collected a rebound off Ethan McIlroy.

Again, the try went unconverted but shortly afterwards, Ulster were pinged for the 12th time in the game which was an ample demonstration of a display which never got going.

From there on, this was really a matter of when Sale would collect their bonus point and they managed that on 63 minutes when Rob du Preez’s pass allowed Thomas Curtis to easily cut through the gap between Stuart McCloskey and Stewart Moore off a scrum.

Rob du Preez converted and he did so again 11 minutes later when a quick throw from Michael Lowry failed to be collected by the visitors and resulted in Byron McGuigan bagging try number five.

Still, there was more pain to be endured for Ulster when with four minutes left, Sale switched play off a scrum and attacked from deep, winger Arron Reed being the beneficiary though this conversion was missed.

Ulster’s inquest will be painful for all, and more of the same from them in terms of on field performance can only lead to something akin to crisis at the Kingspan before the turn of the year.

SALE SHARKS: J Carpenter; A Reed, S James, M Tuilagi, T O’Flaherty; R du Preez (capt), F Warr; B Rodd, A van der Merwe, N Schonert; J Wiese, J Hill; J-L du Preez, T Curry, D du Preez. Replacements: T Taylor for Van der Merwe 58 mins, S McIntyre for Rodd 58 mins, J Jones for Schonert 58 mins, J Beaumont for Hill 65 mins, J Ross for D du Preez 58 mins, J Simpson for Warr 63 mins, T Curtis for Tuilagi 32 mins, B McGuigan for O’Flaherty 63 mins.

ULSTER: M Lowry; E McIlroy, J Hume, S McCloskey, J Stockdale; B Burns, N Doak; A Warwick, R Herring, T O’Toole; A O’Connor (capt), K Treadwell; Matty Rea, N Timoney, D Vermeulen. Replacements: T Stewart for Herring 49 mins, E O’Sullivan for Warwick 49 mins, M Moore for O’Toole 49 mins, S Carter for O’Connor 74 mins, Marcus Rea for Matty Rea 46 mins, D Shanahan for Doak 58 mins, S Moore for mins, B Moxham for Stockdale 58 mins.

Referee: M Raynal (France).