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Sale Sharks slip to their second consecutive defeat in the 2021-22 Gallagher Premiership at the hands of Gloucester Rugby. Despite a reilient second-half comeback, Alex Sanderson’s mix of academy talent and South African power failed to outmuscle the Cherry and Whites at Kingsholm despite scoring five tries.

The Sharks struggled to get a foothold in the game early on as a Gloucester dominated both possession and field position in the opening quarter.

The hosts’ pack was the driving force for George Skivington’s side in the opening forty minutes, as they repeatedly pressured the renowned Sale defence inside the Sharks 22.

Ill-discipline cost Sale early in the match and after an early penalty was kicked by Adam Hastings to give the Cherry and Whites a three-point lead, it looked like it was going to be one way traffic in the first half.

Following repeated infringements from the Sale pack, Gloucester kicked to the corner on two occasions, failing to make their field position count until Ben Morgan powered over at the back of a maul on the hosts’ third attempt at a drive.

The conversion was missed by Hastings, but that did little to halt the Gloucester onslaught.

Just five minutes later, British and Irish Lion Louis Rees-Zammit looked certain to score after chipping past the Sale defence inside the Sharks 22. Kieran Wilkinson had other ideas as the young fly-half beat his man to the ball and knocked it into touch to save the Sharks’ blushes, but it wasn’t enough to stop the hosts.

Six minutes later, Gloucester were back inside the Sharks 22 with another penalty advantage and this time the hosts made the most of it. After shipping wide to Rees-Zammit there was nowhere for the British and Irish Lion to go, but Hastings utilised his kicking game to Crossfield into the hands of hooker Jack Singleton, who dotted down well to score under the posts giving his side a 15-point lead after the conversion was kicked.

A late revival from the Sharks kept the game alive after Daniel du Preez’s offload to Raffi Quirke inside the Gloucester 22 ended in the scrum-half diving over under the posts. Fellow academy graduate Kieran Wilkinson converted the try and kicked a penalty just a minute later, to give Alex Sanderson’s side just a 10-point deficit to overcome after the interval.

Sale looked more engaged after the half-time break and came out firing almost immediately, with the intent and power Sanderson’s men have become famed for. After Raffi Quirke gathered his own box kick and blasted forward to put Arron Reed in to score unopposed, Sale looked like they had the wind in their sails, but it wasn’t to be right away for the men from Manchester.

But Gloucester looked to be out of touch by the 71st minute as a bonus-point try from Rees-Zammit and a Hastings drop-goal took the score to 33-15.

A defensive collapse followed as Du Preez, Warr and Taylor all crossed to give Curtis an opportunity to complete an unlikely turnaround in the final seconds.But the fly-half’s effort from the corner sailed wide as Gloucester narrowly held on to the win.