| Sale: (12) 24 |
| Tries: Reed 2, B Curry, Creevy; Cons: Ford 2 |
| Gloucester: (3) 10 |
| Tries: Thomas Pens: Barton Cons: Barton |
Sale Sharks moved to the highest of the Premiership with a convincing victory over Gloucester on the Salford Group Stadium.
Arron Reed scored two tries within the first half, with returning captain Ben Curry and Argentina hooker Agustin Creevy going over after the interval.
England fly-half George Ford added the opposite factors in his first Sale look since taking part in within the World Cup.
Gloucester slip a spot to sixth after a second consecutive loss, with Freddie Thomas grabbing their sole attempt.
Ford and prop Bevan Rodd have been the primary members of Steve Borthwick’s England squad to characteristic within the Premiership this season, with Sale glad to have them out there after their 43-0 mauling by Exeter Chiefs final Saturday.
There was additionally a debut for veteran Creevy after his summer season swap from London Irish with the 38-year-old again from World Cup responsibility with the Pumas.
Ford performed in 5 of England’s seven video games on the World Cup, contributing 41 factors, together with all of them within the 27-10 pool stage victory over Argentina, however his final begin was within the win over Japan on 17 September.
Nonetheless, his return to home responsibility was an enormous enhance for the Sharks because the 30-year-old had performed a key function in main them to final season’s Premiership last for the primary time in 17 years.
In entrance of a crowd of 4,775 that included World Rugby president Invoice Beaumont, a George Barton penalty gave the guests an early lead.
Nevertheless it was not lengthy earlier than the Sharks’ energy started to take impact within the wind and rain on a foul north west night.
Ford uncared for a shot at purpose and as an alternative the hosts kicked for the nook. From there, dwelling stress near the road ended with Rob du Preez sending in Reed within the reverse nook.
Ford, who missed three kicks in fast succession in tough circumstances, was closely concerned in Reed’s second attempt as Gloucester winger Jack Reeves made an enormous mess of a large up-and-under and Gus Warr launched Reed to dash dwelling earlier than Ford added the extras.
There was the welcome sight within the second half of the return to the sphere for Sale captain Curry for his first sport since final season’s Premiership semi-final in Might when a hamstring damage price him his place within the last and any probability of World Cup choice.
And his first involvement was powering over to attain from shut vary, a feat later repeated by Creevy to deliver up the bonus level and cap the night time’s work for Sale, who haven’t misplaced at dwelling within the league for greater than an yr.
Gloucester have been effectively crushed and have been heading for a second try-less sport till Thomas ran in underneath the posts so as to add a contact of respectability to the scoreline.
Sale Sharks head coach Alex Sanderson advised BBC Sport:
“We received plenty of the scraps and that comes with an depth that you just play with. On an evening like tonight, it was about these scraps in the long run.
“We had a great deal of attacking possession that we in all probability ought to have transformed however we ended up scoring from a stolen line-out and a missed kick.
“To have the lads again from World Cup responsibility and damage, I believed they’d a extremely optimistic affect on the sport.”
Gloucester head coach George Skivington advised BBC Radio Gloucester:
“Each groups have been placing one another underneath stress however Sale put us underneath much more stress on the finish of the sport and received a few scores.
“The physicality and the work-rate have been actually good and a few of our younger gamers actually fronted up however we did not make the most of the stress conditions we created.
“We positively left a few tries on the market and in the long run, that was the distinction within the rating.”
Sale: S James; Roebuck, R du Preez, Bedlow, Reed; Ford, Warr; Rodd, Creevy, Schonert, Wiese, Hill, Van Rhyn, Dugdale, D du Preez.
Replacements: Langdon, McIntyre, Harper, Beaumont, B Curry, N Thomas, Ellis, Wills.
Gloucester: Morris; Reeves, Harris, Atkinson, Hearle; Barton, Chapman; Ford-Robinson, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Thomas, Clark, Tuisue, Donnell, Clement.
Replacements: Socino, Elrington, Knight, Jordan, Taylor, Younger, Llewelyn, Hathaway.
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe.
