Kingsholm falls again as Gloucs pay penalty
KINGSHOLM is no longer a fortress as Gloucester crashed to their fourth consecutive defeat and their sixth in 11 matches this season at their historic venue.
On a miserable night, there was little between the teams but a Gloucester side lacking in confidence failed to capitalise on their dominance in the first quarter.
Gloucester head coach Johan Ackermann said: “The biggest problem for us is ill-discipline at crucial stages. We gave away backto-back penalties to give them valuable territory and lost possession at crucial times.
“Exeter don’t do that, they stick to their systems and don’t give away penalty after penalty. However, I can’t fault our commitment as we stayed in the fight to give ourselves a chance to win it at the end.”
It wouldn’t have been a huge injustice if Gloucester had nicked it at the death as both sides scored fortunate tries but Sale just had a bit more nous at crucial stages.
Ruan Ackermann and Franco Mostert took the battle to Sale up front but the visitors, with Will Cliff and Rob du Preez to the fore, kicked better and made fewer errors.
Nearly all of the first 15 minutes was spent in Sale’s half but the hosts rarely threatened with only a well-judged chip ahead from Danny Cipriani causing Sharks any degree of alarm.
A knock-on from Ollie Thorley ruined that opportunity and, against the run of play, Sale had the first chance for points but Rob du Preez’s penalty bounced back off a post.
It took the visitors until the 22nd minute to reach the opposition 22 and from there they made Gloucester pay for a couple of careless high tackles by taking the lead through a simple penalty from Rob du Preez.
Gloucester looked to have drawn level but a longrange penalty from Billy Twelvetrees rebounded off the crossbar before Sale scored the only try of the first half.
It was a scrappy one as the ball bounced around in ping-pong fashion before Byron McGuigan hacked it forward for Luke James to win the race to touchdown.
After the restart, Sale extended their lead when Bryn Evans finished off a driving line-out before Twelvetrees replied with a straightforward penalty.
Then Wales squad member, Will-Griff John, was sin-binned for collapsing a maul and immediately Fraser Balmain capitalised by crashing over from close range.
At this stage, Gloucester had real momentum but this was quickly extinguished when a loose pass from Cipriani went astray for Marland Yarde to race away and score.
Cipriani was again in the thick of the action as his side came back into a contention with a bizarre try.
From a line-out inside Sale’s 22, his pass hit an unaware Matt Banahan in the head and the ball was propelled forward for Twelvetrees to ground the ball just shy of the dead-ball area.
Sale returned to a full complement and they should have sealed victory but a shocking pass from full-back Simon Hammersley failed to find an unmarked Yarde.
However, Rob du Preez was on target with a second penalty to consolidate Sale’s lofty place in the league table.