Sale beat Gloucester and egde closer to safety

Sale Sharks edged closer to Aviva Premiership safety when they beat Gloucester rugby 32-9 at the Salford City Stadium.

A Dwayne Peel brace of tries helped Sharks leapfrog London Irish, as they earned
a bonus-point win to virtually seal their Premiership survival.

After their flying start, Sale ended the game camped in the Gloucester half,
against 14 men for the last ten minutes, scoring twice in that period.

Gloucester’s failure to clear their lines well enough in the early stages led
to the Sharks taking full advantage, as first of all, Johnny Leota in the first
minute, and then Peel six minutes later, touched down after charge downs.

Those tries sandwiched Gloucester’s first points of the night – a Freddie Burns
long-range penalty goal. He added a second fifteen minutes in to bring his side
back to six points behind.

Cameron Shepherd took Sale into the break with a fine try, taking an inside
pass from Tuitupou – which referee David Rose had to refer to his TMO – before
sidestepping the last line of defence. Macleod added the extras for a half-time
lead of 22-6.

It took a while for Gloucester to come back at the Sharks, but Burns added
a third penalty on 54 minutes, before missing an opportunity to further reduce
the deficit five minutes later.

A moment of controversy came just after the hour, as Leota twisted over a Monaghan
tackle, and touched down just short of the line; another decision made by the
TMO.

Sale piled the pressure on the Gloucester line in their search for the bonus-point,
and with scrum-half Dave Lewis yellow carded ten minutes from the end, it was
only a matter of time, and Peel earned it with six minutes to play, charging
for the line after a line-out maul.

The final play came from Mark Cueto’s try, latching on to a Danny Cipriani
chip over the defensive line, for their biggest Premiership win of the season.

Gloucester meanwhile, face an uphill struggle to reach the play-offs after
a game where they failed to capitalise on their previous four-match winning
streak.

Final Score Sale Sharks 32 (22) Gloucester 9 (6)

Scorers

Sale Sharks
Tries – Leote, Peel (2), Shepherd, Cueto
Pen – MacLeod
Con – MacLeod (2)
Drop –

Gloucester
Tries –
Pen – Burns 3
Con –
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee: David Rose (111th Premiership game)
Assistant Referees: Robin Goodliffe & Roy Maybank.
TMO: David Grashoff.

Teams

Sale Sharks

Cameron Shepherd, Will Addison, Johnny Leota, Sam Tuitupou, Mark Cueto, Nick Macleod, Dwayne Peel, Alasdair Dickinson, Marc Jones, Henry Thomas, Kearnan Myall, Andrei Ostrikov, Dan Braid, David Seymour Captain, James Gaskell

Replacements Tommy Taylor, Ross Harrison, Tony Buckley, Tom Holmes, Richie Vernon, Nathan Fowles, Danny Cipriani, Tom Brady

Gloucester

Rob Cook; Jonny May, Mike Tindall (capt), Billy Twelvetrees, Shane Monahan; Freddie Burns, Dan Robson; Nick Wood, Huia Edmonds, Dario Chistolini; Lua Lokotui, Will James; Tom Savage, Akapusi Qera, Sione Kalamafoni

Replacements:Koree Britton, Dan Murphy, Yann Thomas, Ben Morgan, Andy Hazell, Dave Lewis, Henry Trinder, Charlie Sharples