Match Centre: Gallagher Premiership: Gloucester 32-20 Sale Sharks

Gloucester 32-20 Sale Sharks, Kingsholm

Gloucester managed to end their losing streak as they defeated Sale Sharks 32-20 in the 12th round of the Gallagher Premiership at Kingsholm Stadium on Sunday.

The win has ended a losing streak of nine games for Gloucester but they still continue to remain at ninth place with 22 points while Sale Sharks are at seventh place.

The home side opened the account in the 5th minute as Ollie Thorley pounced on a loose ball and raced through for the opening try in the 5th minute and Santiago Carreras kicked the conversion to make it 7-0. The try came after Thorley brilliantly denied Cobus Wiese a try with the latter leaving the field in the 10th minute.

Sale responded back in the 14th minute as Gus Warr dived from close range and Robert du Preez kicked the conversion to level the scores but shortly they were down to 14 players temporarily with Sam Dugdale sin-binned for a cynical foul.

With the numerical advantage on their side, Gloucester stepped up their ante as George McGuigan dotted down at the back of a driving maul and Ruan Ackermann followed the suit in the 22nd minute. Carreras kicked the conversion on the second try as Gloucester extended the lead to 19-7.

Sale tried to reduce the arrears with a swift penalty kick from Du Preez but Gloucester dominated the end of the opening half as Charlie Atkinson dotted down after a break from Seb Atkinson to claim the bonus point. Carreras kicked the extras as Gloucester headed into the break with a 26-10 lead.

Du Preez with another penalty kick in the 56th minute narrow down the deficit to 13 points but soon Joe Carpenter became their second player to be sin-binned for tackling Carreras in the air. Carreras kicked a penalty goal to make it 29-13 before Gloucester's Lewis Ludlow was yellow carded for bringing down a maul.

With 13 minutes left in the game, Tommy Taylor forced his way over the line and du Preez's conversion brought down the gap to nine points but they did not get any more breakthroughs and instead Carreras kicked a penalty goal in the added minutes to complete a 12 point victory for the Cherry and Whites.

Team line up:

Gloucester: Carreras, Hearle, Harris, S Atkinson, Thorley; C Atkinson, Englefield; Ford-Robinson, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow (c), Mercer.

Reserves: Blake, Elrington, Knight, Tuisue, Clement, Varney, Llewellyn, Hathaway.

Sale: Carpenter, Veainu, James, Bedlow, Reed; R du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, Creevy, Schonert, Wiese, Beaumont, Van Rhyn, Dugdale, D du Preez.?

Reserves: Taylor, Onasanya, Harper, Bamber, Birch, Thomas, Curtis, Ma'asi-White.