Gloucester frustrated a defiant Sale Sharks to win 36-20, with two runaway tries in the second half preventing Sale from closing a large first-half deficit.
A rapid start from the hosts, in which they broke down Sale’s revered defence three times in a variety of ways through Santi Carreras, Max Llewellyn and Josh Hathaway produced an uphill battle for the Sharks.
Sale were able to gather some significant momentum, although persistent ill-discipline from Gloucester delayed the gap between tries for Ben Curry, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Tom Roebuck and the lack of momentum forced them to chase the game.
That chasing mindset proved problematic when Lewis Ludlow intercepted in Sharks’ 22, and from there Gloucester’s victory was sealed.
The first half hour onslaught began in blistering fashion, Santi Carreras collecting a Tomos Williams offload to canter in after some rapid handling beat Sale’s blitz in Gloucester’s own 22.
Wary of the wide threat, the Sale line was breached through the middle for Gloucester’s second, Max Llewellyn coming off his wing to run a hidden line off set piece ball and step round the covering Tom O’Flaherty.
That attack moved out wide once more for Josh Hathaway’s try, the Welsh winger collecting a pass from a collapsed maul penalty advantage having just had a stunning team effort ruled out moments before.
22-3 down on the scoreboard, Sale reverted to type as they clambered for a foothold, finding some purchase with the driving maul to score a crucial try through Ben Curry on the stroke of half-time.
Curry’s try was the culmination of 10 minutes of persistence in the face of Gloucester ill-discipline, Mayco Vivas going to the bin for collapsing the maul. It was much the same after half-time, maul infringements frustrating Sale until Luke Cowan-Dickie dotted down near the hour mark.
That hard-worked momentum was killed, however, in brutal fashion just moments later. Looking to play from deep, makeshift fly-half Rob du Preez was intercepted by Lewis Ludlow, who found Llewellyn for his second.
The seven-point gap was opened to 14, but in-keeping with the last half-hour’s momentum, Tom Roebuck hauled Sale back to within nine when he dived to pick up a low Joe Carpenter try to score in the corner with 15 to go.
However, the Llewellyn-momentum killer proved too much a turning point, and with Sharks chasing the game and Gloucester boasting a two-score lead, the hosts were able to pile on the pressure.
Any semblance of a comeback was muted, therefore, when Williams collected a loose ball and grubbered off his weak foot to score and secure a 36-20 defeat for Sale.
