Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson bemoaned missed chances and urged his troops to be more ruthless after they were knocked out of the Investec Champions Cup following a loss to defending champions La Rochelle on Sunday.
La Rochelle delivered an outstanding all-round performance en route to their 37-24 victory as the Top 14 outfit had the game in the bag by the 50th minute when they held a 30-0 lead.
launched a spirited second-half fightback and were rewarded with late tries from Tom Roebuck, Sam Dugdale, Telusa Veainu and Agustin Creevy.
Although those five-pointers added respectability to the final score, it was too little too late and
admitted his side must show improvement in key moments.
“I’m very proud of the effort, but we missed a few opportunities out there which could have made a huge difference,” he said after the match.
“There were massive momentum swings in that game, but ultimately, we weren’t good enough as you need to be more clinical against the top teams.
“They have statistically the lowest time in play, on average 31 minutes, so we wanted to move the ball and play faster than them, but they did move the ball better than us.
“At the start of the season, our attack was behind others in terms of performance, but I think we are now up to scratch in that area so that’s encouraging.
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La Rochelle were in danger of missing out on the play-offs – losing their first two matches against Leinster and the Stormers – but they bounced back in style with back-to-back victories over Leicester Tigers and Sale and are now on course to win their third successive title.
England and former Exeter Chiefs flyer Jack Nowell came on as a second-half replacement against the Sharks, and the 30-year-old is enjoying his time at the French club.
“I’m absolutely loving it; it’s an unbelievable place to be, and it’s an unbelievable team,” he said. “With many of the boys at the World Cup, it was a slow start to the season, and it took some time to bed the boys back in.
“We fronted up last week against Leicester last week and again here today.
“Playing at home in our stadium is fantastic, but we’ve put ourselves in a position where we are going to be on the road in this competition, but we are good enough to win away.”
Meanwhile, La Rochelle’s director of rugby, , said: “It was a strange game, and we are a serious team when we get our moments right, but we need to put it all together.
“The team is all about character. Boys like Will Skelton and Uini Atonio are not fussed about training, but they certainly show their capabilities on match day.
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La Rochelle skipper and number eight Gregory Alldritt, who was named player of the match, added: “We are pleased to get through to the next stage of the competition. The tournament means a lot to us so we’ll keep trying to the last minute to make it a hat-trick of successes.
“We showed we can play anyone anywhere so playing away is not a huge problem.”
