Gloucester overcome Sale Sharks to register their maiden victory

Sale Sharks 13-26 Gloucester Rugby, AJ Bell Stadium
Scorecard

Gloucester finally managed to register their maiden victory in the ongoing Aviva Premiership season, defeating Sale Sharks by 13-26 at AJ Bell Stadium on Friday.

After leading comfortably by 8-17 at half-time, Gloucester were put to test by Halani 'Aulika's second half try, however, skipper Greig Laidlaw ensured there was no collapse this time around adding three penalties in the final quarter to take his team through.

Billy Burns successfully steered past 'Aulika to assist John Afoa in scoring the first try of the game in the eighth minute while Laidlaw added the conversion to take the score to 7-0. However, Sale Sharks responded with a try of their own with England Saxons centre Sam James crossing over four minutes later but fly-half Dan Mugford failed to add the extras.

Infringement from Sale Sharks hooker Neil Briggs allowed Gloucester to extend their lead to five points with Laidlaw kicking a successful penalty. With Mugford failing to add points for Sale Sharks, Will Addison took over from him and straightaway created an impact adding three points with a penalty in the 34th minute.

The decisive blow for Sale Sharks came in the closing stage of first-half when wing Charlie Sharples scored the second try for Gloucester as they went into half-time with a lead of 17-8.

Steve Diamond's men made a brief comeback into the game with flanker Cameron Neild scoring the first points in the second half with a try in the 54th minute to reduce the gap to four points but once again Sale Sharks missed out on conversion.

Just when the game was evenly poised at 13-17, Laidlaw led from the front adding three penalties to complete a 13-26 victory for Gloucester, their first of the season.