Guinness Premiership

Sale Director of Rugby Kingsley Jones felt his side had thrown away the chance to claim victory at Newcastle by not adhering to their game plan.

The visitors had beaten defending champions Leicester 15-12 in their opening Guinness Premiership fixture, but needed two late penalties from flyhalf Lee Thomas to secure a 16-16 draw at Kingston Park in a frenetic and scrappy affair. And Jones was disappointed that his charges chose to attempt to play a wide attacking game rather than putting pressure on their opponents.

He said: "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. 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. If that had gone on another five minutes I think we would have won it."

The Sharks scored a wonderful try through wing Mark Cueto, who collected Thomas' well placed chip ahead to race over. But they also conceded a try from a calamitous error by flank Neil Briggs, who knocked the ball into the hands of Newcastle centre Rob Vickerman while trying to play the ball from behind his own line.

"Maybe that was part of not respecting Newcastle," Jones said of the incident.

"If we had been playing Leicester maybe someone would have just dropped on the ball and done whatever it takes. But Neil Briggs should not have fingers pointing at him as we lost the ball in their 22 because we didn't support the ball, and it was stolen and we gave away a soft try."

Jones was pleased with the performance of Thomas, who featured prominently at inside centre in the victory over Leicester, kicking all of the team's points, after he was moved to number 10 to cover for the injured Charlie Hodgson.

"He did a great job stepping in for Charlie. It is a real positive that he can play 80 minutes at 10 for us."

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 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."

With thanks to the Guinness Premiership.