Sale take hard route to land a home semi
BEN Curry led the way as Sale booked their first home Premiership semi-final since the glory days of Jason Robinson and co in 2006.
But they did it the hard way against a determined Gloucester side who played better than they have for weeks.
And Sharks didn’t help themselves with Tom Curry and Manu Tuilagi being yellow carded but they got the job done and will be in the last four in a fortnight.
The win was founded on an iron defence which refused to buckle even when they were men down and Curry and George Ford finished the game off making a deciding score for Sam James.
In front of England boss Steve Borthwick Curry, and brother Tom, impressed as Sale rallied from 17-10 down to come out on top.
There was time for Jonny May to grab a losing bonus point for Gloucester which may prove crucial in Champions Cup qualification but this was Sharks day after a jittery few weeks.
Sale lost their way when some big players were injured or away on Test duty during the Six Nations losing three out of four in the Premiership. They should have had a top two spot locked in weeks ago but in their away win over Bristol in the last round it looked like they had got their mojo back.
Gloucester have had a nightmare with injuries but their form has been abysmal with seven defeats out of nine in the league before this clash. Kingsholm was saying goodbye to two old-timers in Ben Morgan, who is retiring, and Billy Twelvetrees, who is moving on.
Sale were rocked by the loss of prop Nick Schonert with just two minutes gone, when he
limped off, and were on the back foot when Louis Rees-Zammit looked to have scored after 11 minutes. But the wing, who did not look at full tilt, was forced into touch by the covering Arron Reed when he looked odds-on to score.
Sale were on the back foot and not looking like a team challenging at the top of the table but somehow got to the break 10-3 in front.
George Ford and Adam Hastings swapped penalties, with Sale done again at the breakdown, before Sharks finally made some inroads into home territory.
The Curry twins carried hard at the Gloucester defence, scrum-half Gus Warr fed Jonny Hill and fellow lock Jean-Luc du Preez stretched over. It was against the run of play but Sale held out another onslaught before half-time although Tom Curry was yellow-carded on 38 minutes. Curry was caught out diving over the ball when another Rees-Zammit break looked like tearing them apart before he fed Stephen Varney but Sale held firm.
Then Tuilagi picked up a yellow as Sale’s defence began to creak on
47 minutes and Jonny May’s break made a score for skipper Lewis Ludlow as the dam finally broke. Soon after, Rees-Zammit got his score finishing off a length of the field break out and Sale were up against it.
But with Raffi Quirke on they upped the pace and the scrum-half was instrumental in the score from Jono Ross which gave Sharks belief again. A penalty from Ford nudged them ahead and when Ben Curry and Ford combined to put James away the game was up for Gloucester despite May’s gutsy last flourish.
really proud of them and it is one step closer. It was a true squad performance, it will be a wet bus home.
“We had to dig deep to get the result. It’s when you are on the back-foot, those chinks can become chasms, but not with this group. They were just galvanised and found a way.”
Gloucester had their chances and Louis Rees-Zammit could have had two more tries to add to the one he scored. Boss George Skivington said: “That is the story of the last couple of months. We created a lot and could not finish them off.”