Sale blown away by Gloucester

Taking it up: Billy Twelvetrees

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Gloucester bounced back from their Round 8 loss to Quins by powering past Sale Sharks in a 29-3 Aviva Premiership victory at Kingsholm.

Five Freddie Burns' penalties gave the Cherry and Whites a 15-3 lead at the interval, with the visitors' sole score coming through Danny Cipriani's three-pointer. And the win was rubber-stamped in the second half through Akapusi Qera's touchdown and a penalty try.

Despite a dreadful run, which culminated in the demotion of Bryan Redpath to head coach, Sale have built some confidence in recent weeks. However, they are still entrenched at the bottom of the table and they fell behind early on at Kingsholm.

Burns opened the scoring with a penalty before he added another after 11 minutes which gave the hosts an early 6-0 lead. The fly-half has been in impressive form so far this season leading to a call-up to the England squad as injury cover.

And two further three-pointers through Sharks' ill-discipline allowed Gloucester to build that advantage. It was becoming repetitive as the former age-grade star kicked another from the tee.

Towards the end of the half, Sale finally managed to cut out the mistakes and ascertain a certain element of control.

When the home side were penalised at the breakdown, Cipriani converted the resultant opportunity to give them hope going into the second half.

The visitors were much brighter after the break and had several chances to reduce the arrears but often the final pass let them down. They were duly punished for their profligacy by a clinical Gloucester outfit when Qera crossed the whitewash.

A dominant scrum from the hosts ended in Luke Pearce awarding a penalty try which means the Sharks remain rooted at the foot of the Premiership.

The scorers:

For Gloucester:
Tries: Qera, Penalty
Con: Burns 2
Pen: Burns 5

For Sale Sharks:
Pen: Cipriani

Gloucester: 15 Rob Cook, 14 Charlie Sharples, 13 Mike Tindall, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Shane Monahan, 10 Freddie Burns, 9 Jimmy Cowan, 8 Sione Kalamafoni, 7 Akapusi Qera, 6 Tom Savage, 5 Jim Hamilton (capt), 4 Will James, 3 Rupert Harden, 2 Huia Edmonds, 1 Dan Murphy.
Replacements: 16 Koree Britton, 17 Nick Wood, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Peter Buxton, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Tim Molenaar, 23 Martyn Thomas.

Sale Sharks: 15 Rob Miller, 14 Charlie Amesbury, 13 Will Addison, 12 Sam Tuitupou, 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Andy Powell, 7 David Seymour (capt), 6 Richie Vernon, 5 Kearnan Myall, 4 Fraser McKenzie, 3 Tony Buckley, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Ross Harrison.
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Eifion Lewis-Roberts, 18 Vadim Cobilas, 19 Tom Holmes, 20 James Gaskell, 21 Will Cliff, 22 Nick Macleod, 23 Cameron Shepherd.

Referee: Luke Pearce
Assistant referees: Stuart Terheege, Ashley Rowden
Television match official: Trevor Fisher
Timekeeper: Matthew Peters
Assessor: Paul Bridgman