Gloucester broke their miserable run of nine consecutive Gallagher Premiership defeats with a morale-boosting 32-20 win over Sale at Kingsholm.
The impressive hosts took full advantage of an error-ridden performance from their injury-ravaged opponents, who missed the chance to climb five places in the league table.
Sale, who lost South African forwards Cobus Wiese and Dan du Preez in the first half hour, were their own worst enemies – picking up two yellow cards as they fell to their fifth defeat in succession in all competitions.
Gloucester’s tries came from Ollie Thorley, George McGuigan, Ruan Ackermann and Charlie Atkinson, with Santiago Carreras adding three conversions and two penalties. Gus Warr and Tommy Taylor scored Sale’s tries with Rob du Preez kicking two penalties and two conversions.
Gloucester conceded a couple of early penalties and Sale looked to have capitalised when Wiese crossed the line only for the giant lock to find himself held up by Thorley. The hosts soon made them pay for their profligacy when the industrious Thorley seized on a loose ball to run 50 metres and score.
After 10 minutes, Sale suffered a further blow when Wiese left the field clutching his arm to be replaced by Ben Bamber but they immediately overcame this setback when Warr dived into a maul to level the scores.
However, a disastrous catalogue of errors from Sale gifted the lead back to the home side. A dithering Arron Reed ran from behind his goal line, his pass to Telusa Veainu was then dropped before Sam Dugdale came from an offside position to try and clear up the damage.
He succeeded in doing so but was yellow-carded for his troubles and from the resulting line-out McGuigan finished off a driving maul. Sale’s woes soon continued by conceding a third try from a maul 25 metres out, Ackermann bursting between the two opposition props on a 25-metre run to the line.
Ruan Ackermann was among those on the scoresheet for Gloucester
Dugdale returned from the sin-bin just in time to see his number eight Dan du Preez stretchered off with a knee injury but a penalty from Rob du Preez kept his side in contention.
Gloucester responded in style with their bonus-point try. An initial break from Seb Atkinson was carried on by Chris Harris, Thorley and Carreras before Atkinson touched down. Carreras converted and the hosts had a 26-10 interval
lead.
After a frenetic first half containing five tries, it was no surprise that the pace slowed after the interval which resulted in a scoreless 16 minutes before Rob du Preez kicked his second penalty.
Sale had hopes of a revival but they were blunted when Joe Carpenter was yellow-carded for taking Carreras out in the air, with the full-back kicking the resulting penalty.
However Gloucester lost skipper Lewis Ludlow to the sin-bin for a deliberate offside, with Sale benefitting from his absence to score a try through Taylor. Ludlow was able to return with no further damage to the scoreboard and ensure that Sale took nothing from the game, with Carreras kicking a last-minute penalty.
What’s next?
The Premiership now takes an eight-week break for the Six Nations, with the league resuming on March 22. The Six Nations begins on Friday, with France taking on Ireland (8pm), before Italy play England (2.15pm) and Wales face Scotland (4.45pm) on Saturday. Follow the Six Nations live via Sky Sports’ digital platforms.