Gloucester bottom of the table after defeat to Sale
THE post-Steve Diamond era at Sale showed a little glimmer as the Sharks nipped to victory with a try less than two minutes from time.
It was the first time they had led all afternoon and ended a three-game losing streak in the Premiership.
And they had the mercilessly sweet boot of fly-half AJ MacGinty to thank, with the American international collecting 17 points in an unerringly accurate display.
With Worcester awarded four points following their cancelled match with Quins, defeat leaves Gloucester at the foot of the table, two points behind Leicester.
Gloucester’s frustrations boiled over in the final minute when a shoving contest spilled off the pitch and into the front row of the stands, resulting in Billy Twelvetrees being sin-binned.
Sale head coach Paul Deacon said of his stint since Diamond’s departure: “It’s nice to get my first win and it’s on to next week now.
“We are after consistency and I thought we gave an 80-minute performance. We need to keep that spirit.”
Ten minutes before kick off the first snow of the evening began to tumble, and it was a tepid start to this encounter until Faf de Klerk jolted things into life with a thumping tackle on opposite number Stephen Varney.
Gloucester’s warm-up drills had seen them intrude at times into the Sale half, and in the early exchanges the Cherry and Whites continued their territorial intrusions. Lloyd Evans benefited with an early penalty goal.
It might have been more for Gloucester, but strong work by returning Sale captain Jono Ross foiled what looked initially like a promising rumbling drive by the home side.
Ross was one of no fewer than six South Africans in the Sale pack, and strong work by the visiting forwards earned them a penalty which allowed MacGinty to open his account with a simple penalty.
But Gloucester immediately r esponded, with Sale’s South African contingent una ble to stop a 12-man lineout dri ve which saw Fraser Balmain awarded the try.
MacGinty pulled thr ee points back, but Sale were then left to r ue a spell of indiscipline b y skipper Ross.
First the f lanker was penalised for patronisingly patting Balmain ’s head after the prop knocked on, and moments la ter was yellow-carded f or a noarms tac kle on V al Rapava-Ruskin.
Evans kicked the resulting penalty , and the fly-half then deli vered a beautiful delayed pass to the impr essive Chris Harris, w ho in tur n fed Louis Rees-Zammit for the try.
While Ross was unr eliable, MacGinty was rock-solid for the Sharks. The US Ea gles playmaker kicked two more penalties, one each side of half time.
Sale br ought g reater verve to their pla y in the second period and T om Roebuck came within a big toe of dotting down in the corner.
But Gloucester desperately hung on, a desperation ca ptured b y skipper Le wis Ludlo w being sin-binned f or not retreating ten.
MacGinty kic ked his fifth to reduce Gloucester’s lead to just a point, and the home side looked vulnerable. An Ev ans penalty against the run of play did, however, seem to gi ve the Cherry and Whites a little breathing space.
But Josh Beaumont barrelled o ver to trash Gloucester’s star t to 2021 and put Sale back into the playoff zone.