On the other side of Manchester, thousands of supporters made a pilgrimage to the Etihad Stadium to watch two teams with everything to play for. The local transport networks were jammed with City and Arsenal fans, flocking in for a game of the highest stakes.
Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta used to be on the same side but they are now proving difficult to split in the race for the Premier League title. Mark McCall and Alex Sanderson share a similar history yet this strange afternoon at the CorpAcq Stadium felt like a race to nowhere.
Sale are no longer in contention for the play-offs and looked every inch a team with nothing to play for. They were submissive. Injuries have ravaged their squad and they looked like a group who would rather not show up for the remaining five games of the season.
Saracens hold a mathematical chance of making the top-four but they are more focused on giving McCall a dignified farewell at the end of the campaign. Five tries from Noah Caluori helped them coast to a record points haul that should set alarm bells ringing at Prem Rugby HQ.
Jeopardy was absent at the CorpAcq Stadium. Sale, Gloucester, Newcastle and Harlequins have conceded 248 points between them this weekend and, with relegation scrapped, such blowout scores will do nothing to attract investors to the new franchise model.
Simon Massie-Taylor and his executive board should consider restructuring the league format on recent evidence. Amid calls for the Champions Cup to be cut back, the PREM should consider expanding the play-offs from four teams to six to ensure the final rounds have more meaning.
Sale are launching their new season-ticket campaign this week but their capitulation will do nothing to boost sales. The arrival of Courtney Lawes, Joe Marchant et al offers provides hope for next season but the coming weeks now feel like an exercise of damage limitation for Alex Sanderson.
‘I’ll take my part in it,’ said the Sale director of rugby. ‘Clearly I was not able to get the boys motivated enough. I was not able to push those buttons, ask the right questions or bring the group together because we did not play like a team. I think we just turned up today and after a poor start, looked to stick in and survive.
‘I didn’t think we were at the races at all from a mentality and physical perspective and that bled through all aspects of our game: set piece, aerially, gain-line. We were well beaten, battered actually.
‘I have asked them to come in tomorrow and tell me what’s motivating them individually. Some of those collective motivational drivers weren’t enough. I just like to think there’s some more deep-seated motivators for the group, other than just adulation. It certainly wasn’t there today. Those are the answers to the questions I want. I don’t even care if they are selfish. If someone is playing for a summer tour fine, find a way, find something to go after because that’s not acceptable.’
When pressed on his own position, Sanderson added: ‘I’m confident I can take them forward, one hundred percent I can.
‘If I felt like I was losing the group then that’s a different question – I would just walk.’
Sanderson watched his forlorn team concede a record 13 tries.
Across two games against Sale this season, Caluori has now scored 10. McCall tried to quieten the noise around his teenage winger a few months ago but here the Saracens director of rugby offered the highest praise to the youngster.
‘Noah’s performance today was way better than his performance against them last time,’ said McCall. ‘His defensive performance was better; he came up trumps and made a lot of good decisions, a lot of good contacts.
‘His aerial work going backwards was as good as his aerial work going forward. They put a lot of balls towards him and he did a great job there. His ability to get us over the gain-line, he made big metres every time he carried the ball. He’s a real handful with the ball, his footwork, his strength and power, some of his finishes were NRL-like.
‘We have had Ashy (Chris Ashton), Sean Maitland and David Strettle at the club, but I am not sure I have seen as much from one player in one game, albeit it was a game that blew out.
‘What’s going to stop him? He’s a great kid who wants to do well and he will work really hard. The possibilities are so exciting for Saracens but exciting for England as well.’
Thanks to Caluori, only those in the lighter shade of blue had something to celebrate in Manchester this weekend.
