Bath thump Sale in 14-a-side thriller while Gloucester put Newcastle to the sword
Bath and Gloucester secured impressive wins in round six of the Premiership.
Bath returned to the top of the Premiership table – for the time being – with a resounding 40-13 win over Sale Sharks in a 14-a-side thriller at the Rec.
Two red cards for Will Butt and Nye Thomas were the headline events in the game, as Johann van Graan’s side made it five wins from their opening six fixtures.
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Just 65 seconds into the game, a deft inside pass from Bath tighthead prop Thomas du Toit sent Will Muir galloping through a gap in the Sale defence on an unstoppable trajectory to the try line. Finn Russell converted to get the home side off to a dream start.
Muir was just as alert in defence to foil a blindside thrust by Sale skipper Rob du Preez but the fly-half was able to land a 13th-minute penalty from 30 metres.
His side was under pressure in the scrums, however, and conceding penalties, which put Bath in prime position for a second try on 19 minutes. The catch-and-drive from a line-out eventually saw skipper Miles Reid touching down, with Russell again adding the conversion.
Another penalty from Du Preez’s boot kept his team in touch after it was Bath’s turn to feel the pressure. But that was quickly answered on 26 minutes when Du Toit showed a remarkable turn of pace to a take a Louis Schreuder pass and score under the posts.
Russell’s conversion was the last score of the first half as Sale stepped up their effort but without finding any reward.
Five minutes after the break, Ted Hill scored the bonus-point try, a spectacular effort bursting through two tacklers and weaving past Gus Warr to the posts to make it another simple conversion for Russell.
The joy was short-lived though as flanker Guy Pepper was helped off with a leg injury and centre Butt was red-carded for upending replacement lock Le Roux Roets at a ruck, letting him land on his head.
With Sale suddenly energised, it was now Bath losing their discipline and the visitors capitalised with an expertly taken try at the flag by right wing Will Addison, courtesy of an equally well-judged grubber kick by Joe Carpenter. Du Preez converted from the touchline to make the score 28-13.
Bath hit back on the hour, fashioning an opening for Muir but he was taken out in the corner by a double tackle from replacements Thomas and Tom Curtis. Thomas was shown the red for a head-high challenge as a bloodied Muir received treatment.
Retribution was swift as Bath worked replacement scrum-half Tom Carr-Smith over in the right corner and Russell’s conversion made it 35-13.
A sixth try followed on 78 minutes as replacement prop Francois van Wyk burrowed under a pile of bodies to score – just as he did against Harlequins a week earlier. Russell’s conversion was wide to deny him a perfect record.
Gloucester put Newcastle to the sword in emphatic win
Gloucester ended a run of three-straight defeats with a brilliant 36-7 win over bottom-side Newcastle Falcons at Kingsholm.
The Cherry and Whites have rapidly transformed their attacking mentality, and that was full display against Newcastle as they ran in six tries – from six different scorers – to confirm their second win of the season.
Gloucester flew out of the blocks with a try after just five minutes as they stretched Newcastle from side to side, with Charlie Atkinson releasing Ollie Thorley down the wing. Patient play eventually saw Singleton put Clement away down the left flank to score.
Anscombe missed the touchline conversion but quickly got some more kicking practice as his compatriot Williams touched down his fourth try of the season after some opportunist play from Wade, who chipped and regathered his own kick before feeding his scrum-half to finish the move under the posts.
Gloucester’s pack had ironed out the creases that had plagued their line-out in recent weeks and used the set-piece to power over for a catch-and-drive try, touched down by Blake who was on the pitch as a blood replacement for Singleton.
The Cherry and Whites threatened to score several more tries before Llewellyn burst through the midfield to get deep into the opposition’s 22. The ball was worked quickly through the hands for Zach Mercer to put Singleton away down the wing to score in the corner on the stroke of half-time.
Newcastle showed fight in the second half but not a lot of guile. The visitors were unable to score while Anscombe was off the pitch having being shown a yellow card for talking back to referee Ian Tempest, but they finally did when it was 15-on-15, with Balmire taking an offload to crash over.
That sparked the game into life and the hosts scored two quick tries in reply through Wade and Hathaway to run up the score, and in truth they left plenty of points out on the park.
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