Match Centre: Gallagher Premiership: Sale 14-22 Bristol

Sale Sharks 14-22 Bristol Bears, Salford Community Stadium

Sale Sharks' 12-game winning streak at home came to an end as they were edged out by Bristol Bears with a 14-22 margin in the 11th round of the Gallagher Premiership at Salford Community Stadium on Friday.

The defeat meant Sale continue to remain at fourth place with 32 points while Bristol are at eighth place with their fifth victory in the campaign.

Bristol dominated the opening exchanges as Harry Randall burrowed over by the posts after they breached the Sale defence in the 6th minute and 10 minutes later Gus Warr’s kick was charged down by Josh Caulfield with eventually Gabriel Ibitoye diving over.

AJ MacGinty kicked both the conversions as the visitors raced to a 14-point lead.

The response from Sale eventually came around the half hour mark as a kick from Randall was charged down by Jonny Hill, who dotted down and a successful conversion from Robert du Preez as the teams completed the opening half with a 7-14 scoreline.

Sale thought they scored their second try through Joe Carpenter but it was ruled out by the TMO following a heroic effort from Kieran Marmion with a try saving tackle.

Bristol were the quickest to get off the block in the second half as captain Steven Luatua offloaded for Max Malins to crossover for their third try but AJ MacGinty missed out on the conversion making it 7-19.

The 66th minute saw Sale hooker Agustin Creevy forced his way over and a conversion from du Preez brought down the gap to five points but their momentum was hampered with Telusa Veainu and Ben Bamber sent to sin-bin in quick succession with MacGinty kicking a penalty for Bristol to complete an eight point victory.

Team line up:

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, S. James, Ma'asi-White, Reed; R du Preez, Warr; Harrison, Cowan-Dickie, Schonert, Wiese, Hill, van Rhyn, B Curry (c), JL du Preez.??

Reserves: Creevy, Onasanya, Harper, Bamber, Dugdale, Thomas, Curtis, Veainu.?

Bristol: Malins; Heward, van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Woolmore, Oghre, Sinckler, Caulfield, Batley, Luatua (c), Thomas, Bradbury.

Reserves: Capon, Grahamslaw, Kloska, Owen, Heenan, Marmion, Ravouvou, Lane.