Premiership: Battered Sale look to less daunting challenges ahead after 24-3 thrashing by Harlequins

Luke Wallace scores the opening try for Harlequins (GETTY IMAGES)

Sale’s director of rugby Steve Diamond would have used the long bus journey back up the M6 to dissect his team’s performance in Saturday’s 24-3 loss at Harlequins with his assistant Bryan Redpath. But it was clear even before they left the Stoop that the Sharks’ two home Premiership matches with Exeter and Worcester in November were higher priorities.

"We have to keep our feet on the ground," said Diamond, when asked whether this was a sign the Sharks might not have what it takes to finish in the top half of the Premiership. "We're going to struggle away from home to any of the top four teams from the last couple of years [Saracens, Leicester, Harlequins and Northampton] with the depth of our squad. We’re reasonably happy with our position and we’ll see how we get on against Exeter and Worcester."

You can see Diamond’s point – and also the one he made in admiring terms about the quality control gained by Quins from the second-half kicking of their half-backs Danny Care and Nick Evans – because in a long, arduous season there is bound to be the occasional dud.

What’s slightly irksome is that the English clubs would like to inflict this variation of repetitive strain syndrome on their Celtic and Italian counterparts, insisting that everyone should flog themselves on a weekly basis for nine months. Perhaps the Harlequins attendance 20 per cent short of capacity gave a clue to what the public think about a team missing around 10 first-choice players hosting one with their minds arguably somewhere else.

The good news for the severely depleted Quins – in addition to the tries by back rowers Luke Wallace and Jack Clifford that helped stop the rot of no wins at home this season and four losses on the bounce in all fixtures – is that Charlie Matthews should return this evening in the  A-team, followed by another lock, the summer signing Nick Kennedy, in the LV Cup rematch with Sale on Friday week. England’s Chris Robshaw, Mike Brown and Joe Marler should be back for the second Premiership round in November – when Harlequins meet Gloucester – while hooker Rob Buchanan,  prop Paul Doran-Jones and flanker Maurie Fa’asavalu will need a few more weeks.

But that leaves another half-dozen absentees including three centres, among whom George Lowe with a neck injury may be the most concerning. At least the 20-year-old Clifford’s recall from loan at Ealing, to score a first Premiership try in the 69th minute, following on from a lavish counter-attacked finished by Wallace from Evans’s cross-kick, pleased Nick Easter. "We have got an embarrassment of riches in the back row," said Easter, Quins' No 8 who has been playing in the second row. "In a few years when I and maybe a few others have passed by, that’s going to be a pretty tasty unit if we manage to keep them. Jack’s made a statement straight away today which was fantastic in his first proper game."

Everywhere you looked there was a brother of someone or other. Easter won the direct confrontation with Sale’s Mark among the forwards; Karl Dickson at scrum-half for Harlequins enjoyed a win a week before his  sibling Lee is set to play for England against Australia.

But Sale’s Joe Ford was unable to repeat the narrow victory gained by his brother George for Bath the night before. Poor Joe had not been on the field long as a replacement for Danny Cipriani when he tried a clearing kick that Clifford charged down and collected, giving the captain of England’s World Under-20 title-winning team a delighted run to  the posts.