These days, almost the worst thing a team can do in the Premiership is rack up an early lead, such is the likelihood of a stirring comeback. Sure enough, Gloucester ran rings around a leaden-footed Sale for half an hour; sure enough, Sale spent most of the rest of the match bulldozing away at Gloucester’s line.
At times in the second half, it felt inevitable Sale would overturn the 22-3 deficit that faced them midway through the first, such was the inability of their hosts to gain a hold on the game that had been so firmly theirs. The referee, Jack Makepeace, was not a popular man, but Gloucester’s indiscipline yielded nearly 20 penalties for the visitors.
Even after Max Llewellyn finished his second try, for a bonus point, in the 59th minute, giving Gloucester vital breathing space at the height of the siege, Sale kept coming. Tom Roebuck’s try four minutes later kept their hopes alive for the final quarter of an hour, but Tomos Williams’s brilliant solo try in the dying minutes put an end to any hopes of a latest dramatic comeback win.
And so Gloucester maintain their challenge for a playoff place. What a way to do it. That first half-hour was another attacking masterclass in a league full of them. Last weekend, Sale journeyed to these parts and choked the most outrageous attacking side of the moment, Bristol, keeping them to nil on their patch. This weekend they were bewildered.
“It just shows you, doesn’t it?” said a rueful Alex Sanderson, the Sale Sharks director of rugby. “You’ve never cracked it.”
Gloucester’s first try, after five minutes, was an extraordinary display of handling and angles of running from out of their own 22. The peerless Santi Carreras finished it, supporting Williams for the final pass, but his lightning hands a few seconds earlier and about 70 metres further back had sprung Josh Hathaway from deep in their own territory.
Llewellyn, playing on the wing, scored his first straight off a lineout 15 minutes later, surging through Sale’s midfield and stepping Tommy O’Flaherty for another virtuoso try.
Sale were torn apart again early in the second quarter, another blur of hands and support lines, this time from forwards, but Hathaway’s try was chalked off for a forward pass from Williams. It was marginal.
No matter, Hathaway scored from the next play, this time popping up on the right to run to the corner after sweet hands down the line. Carreras converted from the touchline for that 22-3 lead.
The drama segued into a totally different plot. In the final minutes of the half, Sale were awarded a slew of penalties, all of which they sent to the corner. From the first they secured a position in the Gloucester 22 for the first time.
None of the invention of Gloucester’s approach play here. Sale were in a hole and they could not afford to be fussy about how they scratched their way out. Eventually, the pressure told. Mayco Vivas was shown a yellow card after the clock had turned red and at the umpteenth time of asking Sale scored from a lineout and drive, captain Ben Curry finishing with the touchdown.
Leicester battled to a much‑needed yet unconvincing win over struggling Exeter in a dour contest. The Tigers were the better side in the first half, but the visitors dominated the second period until Will Rigg was sent to the sin‑bin and the Chiefs can consider themselves unfortunate not to come away from Welford Road with at least a point.
Olly Cracknell, Cameron Henderson, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Ben Youngs scored Leicester’s tries, with Handré Pollard converting all four. For Exeter, some Henry Slade magic created two tries for Tom Wyatt, with Josh Hodge converting one. Slade added a penalty.
Exeter took a fourth-minute penalty from that Slade penalty but from their first period of pressure Leicester responded with a try from Cracknell, when the No 8 proved unstoppable from a five-metre scrum. Pollard converted to make it 7-3 at the end of a competitive but disjointed first quarter.
Leicester extended the lead when a half-break from Pollard gave Henderson the chance to crash over under the posts. Pollard converted, but his missed from a long-range penalty meant a 14-3 interval lead.
Two minutes after the restart, Exeter scored an excellent try with Slade’s crossfield kick being collected by Wyatt for the wing to race over and the Chiefs continued to have the better of the third quarter. Stu Townsend and Slade neatly combined to provide Wyatt with a walk-in score. Hodge took over the kicking from Slade and nailed the conversion from near the touchline to put his side in front.
With 15 minutes remaining, Exeter lost Rigg to the sin-bin for taking Freddie Steward out in the air and the Tigers immediately capitalised. A break from Dan Kelly tore the defence to shreds and, when the ball was recycled, Hassell‑Collins outflanked the cover to score.
Rigg was still absent when Youngs saw a gap to secure a scarcely deserved bonus point. PA Media
Sale had been disadvantaged by the withdrawal of scrum-half Raffi Quirke on the day, to go with the loss of England stand-off George Ford the week before. Neither is expected to be out for long. Perhaps they could have chanced their arm more ambitiously with their familiar half-back pairing, but in the second half the theme of the last five minutes of the first was maintained.
Arthur Clark was shown the next yellow, tackling Luke Cowan-Dickie from an offside position as he tried to score from the latest driven lineout, but Cowan-Dickie rose to his feet to peel off the front of the next for Sale’s second try, just shy of the hour.
Sale seemed the likelier winners at that point, but Llewellyn was sent to the line for a crucial Gloucester try, after Lewis Ludlow intercepted Rob du Preez’s pass. That might have pricked Sale’s bubble, but still the referee favoured them and the visitors had their third try four minutes later, Roebuck finishing on the right. Du Preez could not convert, which gave Gloucester some breathing space, taking a nine-point lead into the last 10 minutes.
Williams’s chip and chase with a few minutes to go put the game to bed and Gloucester join the usual throng of clubs in the race for the playoffs.
