Disappointing night down at Kingsholm despite the efforts from Sharks and a trademark drop goal from George Ford.
Sharks started the first half with real pace, with George Ford and Gus Warr linking up nicely to pull the strings in attack. It took just 12 minutes for Alfie Longstaff to crash over after an excellent move involving Jacques Vermeulen and Tom Roebuck, who got the ball wide for Longstaff to wrestle over. That’s two tries in his first two PREM games.
Gloucester looked to respond through Matias Alemanno, but the try was held up. Afo Fasogbon was then also denied over the line. Sharks capitalised from the turnover as Tom O’Flaherty collected a loose ball and raced in from his own half, beating two Gloucester defenders to score under the posts. Ford added the conversion to extend the lead.
Tomos Williams then struck a perfect 50/22 in response, but Sharks’ defence stood firm, with Jacques Vermeulen producing a huge effort to hold Gloucester up over the line.
However, after sustained pressure on the Sharks defence, Ben Loader burst over to score. Sharks went into the break holding a narrow 07-12 lead over the hosts.
Charlie Atkinson resumed play for the second half, and Gloucester used their dominance at the set-piece to pin Sharks back inside their own 22. Despite more pressure from Afo Fasogbon close to the line, Atkinson spotted a gap and crashed over, with Barton adding the conversion to give Gloucester the lead.
Atkinson’s try shifted the momentum firmly in Gloucester’s favour and Arthur Clark thought he had added another, only for the try to be ruled out for a forward pass. On the hour mark, Sharks were forced to withstand wave after wave of Gloucester pressure on their own line before young replacement hooker Wills Austin secured a crucial turnover to clear the danger.
With just over 10 minutes to go, Sharks needed territory. Ford delivered a brilliant 50/22 to create an attacking platform, but handling errors allowed Gloucester to turn the ball over. Atkinson then cleared the lines but returned possession straight back to Ford.
Ford then produced a trademark moment, landing a superb drop goal from 45 metres out and out wide on the angle to put Sale in front 14-15 with seven minutes remaining.
But with four minutes left on the clock, Atkinson showed his quality again, diving under the posts to secure Gloucester’s fourth win of the season.
Alex Sanderson Said, “We started well with plenty of endeavour and the motivation was there. We showed real graft to keep repelling them, but you can’t operate without a platform.
We lost line-out after line-out and struggled at the scrum. It’s a big learning curve for our youngsters in those positions and, as a result, we couldn’t get out of our own half for the first 20 minutes.
“The breakdown was a complete mess at times, and we need to look at what we could have done better in that area.”
“We’ve got a couple of big teams coming to our place who are all striving for the top four. We want to restore pride in our home ground, in front of our home fans. We owe them that.”
“You never go into a game thinking: ‘We’ll just give it a shot.’ No. It’s your livelihood and your pride every single week, regardless of what comes at the end of it. As an athlete and as a coach, the desire to improve every day and every week is always there.”
Your Sharks return home next Sunday to face Leicester Tigers in Round 16. Secure your seat here.
