Ford finds his feet but Bears in charge
GEORGE Ford safely navigated his first 40 minutes of rugby since rupturing his Achilles in the Premiership final but his ragged Sale side were easily undone by Bristol’s expansive – and at times ruthless – play.
To kick off a Six Nations weekend, it was a first-half hat-trick by a Welshman that did for the Sharks, with Ioan Lloyd giving the hosts a lead that they never looked like surrendering. Playing on the wing, Lloyd’s performance will certainly incite more debate about what the utility back’s primary position should be.
Despite taking a significant beating, Sale still finished top of Pool B in the Premiership Cup and an away semi-final to Exeter awaits.
The Sharks – who alongside Ford also had Jason Woodward and Raffi Quirke returning from injury – needed to win by at least 29 points to guarantee a home semi-final, but they were off the pace from the first whistle as the Bears rediscovered some of their fluency.
“It certainly looked like us when we’re humming,” said Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam.
Quirke had barely stretched his legs on his return to action when he was given a breather. The scrum-half was sinbinned for an early tackle on the dangerous Henry Purdy and Bristol immediately made the extra man tell, Lloyd finishing with strength and composure under a mob of defenders.
Among the players to have signed on with new clubs following Worcester’s financial collapse, Noah Heward may not have been the biggest name. But Bristol signed him up sharpish and on the basis of his first-half display here there were plenty of reasons to justify Lam’s quick move.
For all of Lloyd’s hattrick heroics, it was Heward who delivered the moment of the night. Fielding a ball in his own half, the full-back counter-attacked superbly. Showing the vision to identify space and the footwork to exploit it, Heward scythed his way to the Sale 10m line before showing the raw pace to burn off the scrambling Sharks defence and round Woodward. It was a try that jolted the game into life. Openside flanker Dan Thomas was impressive in the loose and also delivering solid link play to release the likes of Lloyd and Heward out wide.
It was one such moment from Thomas that paved the way for Lloyd’s second and Lloyd turned provider for the next try, with Ed Holmes getting in on the action.
Lloyd’s third, converted by Jimmy Williams, gave Bristol a 31-0 lead with them scoring at a rate of almost a point a minute.
A try by Elliot Gourlay on the stroke of halftime finally got Sale some points, but normal business was resumed after the break when a series of strong carries by Bristol saw centre Harry Ascherl go over.
Sale enjoyed a rare spell of sustained ball and territory as Bristol’s penalty count went up, but the visitors’ stay in the Bears’ 22 was brought to a resounding end when No.8 Rouban Birch was bundled into touch.
Sale replacement hooker Harry Thompson, only just on the pitch, was sinbinned for killing the ball, and Bristol immediately scored through Fred Davies at a maul.
Williams was yellow-carded following persistent infringement by Bristol and Sale then spun the ball wide to put Gourlay over for his second. Tom Roebuck scored again for Sale to give the scoreboard a tinge of respectability.