Match Centre: Bath Rugby 20-37 Sale Sharks

Bath 20-37 Sale Sharks, Recreation Ground

Sale Sharks successfully overcame a red card to Nick Schonert as they defeated Bath Rugby 37-20 in the second round of the Gallagher Premiership at Recreation Ground on Saturday.

Bath now have lost their second consecutive game under Johann van Graan while Sale Sharks move to the top of the table with 10 points.

It took Sale just three minutes to open their account as Tom O'Flaherty touched down and Rob du Preez kicked the conversion to make it 0-7. Four minutes later, the visitors were down to 14 players as Nick Schonert was sent-off for a high tackle on Dave Attwood.

Piers Francis kicked a penalty goal to get Bath off the mark but his effort was negated as Rob du Preez kicked a three-pointer of his own to restore the seven point lead for the visitors.

The scoreline became 6-10 after Francis kicked a second penalty kick in the 27th minute following a strong work out wide by Muir on his return to the side. Despite being down by a player, Sale Sharks showed great intent as a result Akker van der Merwe dived from close range for their second try in the 28th minute following which Bath skipper Ben Spencer had to leave the field with injury.

Sharks' dominance at breakdown allowed them to win two more penalties which du Preez slotted as they finished the opening half with a lead of 6-23 despite Schonert's red card early in the game.

Bath showed better intent in the second half as Louis Schreuder and Richard de Carpentier combined to send Joe Cokanasiga over and Francis improved reducing the gap down to 10 points.

However, his effort was negated with Tom Curry crossing over after collecting an offload from O’Flaherty in the 51st minute making it 13-30. Sale's problems compounded as Ross Harrison was sin-binned after five successive scrum penalties. With two player advantage, Bath saw De Glanville diving over after good work from Jonathan Joseph and Cokanasiga but it went in vain as Jono Ross burrowed over with two minutes left to steer Sale to a 17 point victory.

Team line up:

Bath: de Glanville; Cokanasiga, Joseph, Redpath, Muir; Francis, B Spencer; Boyce, Dunn, A Coetzee, Attwood, McNally, Bayliss, White, J Coetzee.

Reserves: Doughty, Schoeman, Stuart, W Spencer, van Velze, Schreuder, Bailey, de Carpentier.

Sale: L. James; Roebuck, S James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R Du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, van der Merwe, Schonert, Wiese, J Hill, du Preez, B Curry, D Du Preez.

Reserves: Ashman, Harrison, Harper, Ross, T Curry, Simpson, Curtis, Reed.