Sale sack French 'fortress'

Sale completed a stunning 32-15 victory over Clermont Auvergne in their Heineken Cup Pool 1 clash on Saturday.

The visitors ran in four tries to claim a valuable bonus point and become only the second side to win at the Stade Marcel Michelin in 40 games.

The first points came in the sixth minute, Luke McAlister slotting a penalty to give Sale an early 3-0 lead.

Eight minutes later and McAlister was on target again to extend the visitors lead to six points after the home side were penalised at the ruck for being off their feet.

With Sale matching their hosts in all quarters, they stunned the home crowd into silence in the 20th minute with a wonderfully worked counter-attack to produce the first try of the game.

Receiving the ball from Mark Cueto at the base, scrum-half Dwayne Peel sliced open the Clermont defence with a blistering burst of speed before offloading to Fernandez Lobbe on his left shoulder.

Lobbe in turn released David Doherty, whose pace proved too much for the scrambling Clermont defence and the winger darted through to cross in the left corner.

Magnificent

McAllister added the extras with a magnificent conversion from the touchline to put Sale into a 13-0 lead and leave Clermont rattled by their English opponents.

Clermont finally got the opportunity to score their first points of the game at the half hour mark when Sale were caught offside.

Brock James never looked likely to disappoint and five minutes later he notched up three more with a difficult long range effort that bounced in off the post to take the score to 13-6.

Uncharacteristically however, the Aussie fly-half spurned the opportunity to cut the deficit further, sending his third attempt wide of the posts on the stroke of half time.

Soon after the break Peel hobbled off to be replaced by Charlie Hodgson, albeit relegated to full back in the defensive phase.

James closed the gap to four points in the 48th minute but three minutes later Hodgson showed why he is one of the games finest attacking playmakers.

Finding himself in possession, after an overthrow allowed Sale to steal a lineout, Hodgson floated a delightful pass to Rory Lamont, who fed McAllister on the outside for Sale's second try.

Another perfect touchline kick from the Kiwi added the extras to his own try and stretched the visitors lead to 20-9.

Bombshell

James pulled back three points at the end of the third quarter and two minutes later McAllister registered his first miss of the day.

On 69 minutes James was given another opportunity by a Sale side that were beginning to make a one or two errors.

James duly took the score to within five points at 20-15 and set up a dramatic final ten minutes.

But, with just eight minutes to go Sale dropped a bombshell on the home side, who were now beginning to take some risks.

Choosing to run the ball from deep inside their own half, Clermont were caught by back row Luke Abraham .

After some great work at at the breakdown, and with men over on the left, Abraham fed the turnover ball to Rudi Kiel who strolled in for the try.

McAllister was again on target to add the two points with another magnificent kick from the touchline.

And if the French side didn't already think it was all over, Cueto made sure five minutes later when he bounded in to claim the bonus point and complete a perfect start to Sale's Heineken Cup campaign.