Your Sharks came from behind to kick the new Gallagher Prem season off with a bonus point victory against a dogged Gloucester side at the CorpAcq Stadium.
Second half tries from new boy Nathan Jibulu, Joe Carpenter and Hyron Andrews helped Alex Sanderson’s men overturn a five-point deficit to secure a 27-10 round one win.
Despite an early Tom Roebuck try, Gloucester had gone in at the break leading 10-5 through a converted try from Jack Clement and a Ross Byrne penalty.
But Sharks roared back and clinched the full five points when replacement Andrews went over in the last minute.
The first half was a close-fought affair, and it took until the 17th minute for either team to make the breakthrough.
From a scrum penalty, George Ford kicked to the corner and from the resulting lineout, Ford shifted the ball to the blindside for Roebuck to touch down in the corner. Ford missed the conversion.
Sharks pressed on for a second and were denied a second when ref Christophe Ridley adjudged Bevan Rodd to have been in front of the ball carrier.
And after a Ross Byrne penalty brought the score to 5-3, the last word went to the Cherry and Whites when Jack Clement crashed over and Byrne converted.
The second-half started in similar fashion, with another disallowed Sharks try, this time for a forward pass.
But after Clement was shown a yellow card, Sharks new boy Jibulu capitalised on the extra man to crash over from a driving maul. The impressive Ford converted to give Sharks a 12-10 lead approaching the hour mark.
Ford extended the home side’s lead with a penalty and just minutes later the Sharks fly-half was at it again as he threw a long pass to put Joe Carpenter away in the right corner. With another tricky conversion nailed, the score was extended to 22-10.
Marshalled by Player of the Match Ford, Sharks continued to press and the bonus point was secured with the last play of the match as Hyron Andrews dived over in the corner.
Ford missed the conversion but the Sharks faithful went home happy with a five-point start to the new campaign.
