Sale 7-45 Glasgow Warriors: Scots keep Champions Cup quarter-final hopes alive

Glasgow earned a four-try bonus point, which could prove crucial

Glasgow gave themselves a chance of reaching the Heineken Champions Cup quarter-finals with a dominant bonus-point win against Sale.

Leone Nakarawa marked his Glasgow return with a try, and Fraser Brown and DTH van der Merwe's scores gave the visitors a healthy lead at the break.

Sam Johnson scored the bonus-point try before Jake Cooper-Woolley got Sale on the scoreboard.

Jonny Gray and George Turner's tries brought Glasgow's final tally to six.

If Glasgow are to make the last eight then Saracens and Gloucester, who play on Sunday, cannot win or earn a draw with a four-try bonus point.

The Scottish side's win also ends Irish team Munster's hopes of reaching the knockout stages.

• Full Champions Cup pool standings

• Saracens to be relegated from Premiership at end of season

• Exeter secure home Champions Cup quarter-final

Glasgow inflict six-try demolition

Nakarawa was making the first appearance of his second Glasgow stint and got off to a perfect start as he dived over from close range.

Sale captain Jono Ross was given a yellow card after landing on Scott Cummings with his forearm and Glasgow capitalised on the man advantage, with Brown scrambling across the tryline.

Then, a perfectly timed run saw Van der Merwe claim Ali Price's offload to score Glasgow's third try before Nakarawa's earlier heroics were dampened as he was given a yellow card for repeated infringements at the ruck.

After the break, Hastings took a quick tap penalty and Price timed another offload well to send Johnson over for what could yet prove to be a crucial bonus-point try.

Sale eventually got off the mark in the 56th minute when Denny Solomona chased his own kick to break open Glasgow's defence, leading to Cooper-Woolley's score.

But Jonny Gray soon crossed in the corner before hooker George Turner showed impressive pace to break through Sale's defence for the visitors' sixth and final try.

'We did our job to try and make the top eight' - what they said

Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond: "Europe's a big competition but we didn't have some players available for the first two games. Apart from today, we got bonus-points in the other games so it's a learning curve for us.

"Glasgow have a proud tradition and they're good in this competition."

Glasgow man of the match Ali Price: "We knew we had to come and put in a performance that we were proud of. We did our job to try and make the top eight. Hopefully results go our way and we can scrape in.

"We had to come here and get five points and try and put ourselves in the mix. We've done that."

Glasgow head coach Dave Rennie: "We did what we could and we'll see how the cards fall. If we'd got five last week instead of three (in the 31-31 draw with Exeter), we'd be in a really strong position and likewise the loss at home to La Rochelle hurts."

Line-ups

Sale: Carpenter, Solomona, James, Williams, Yarde, Curtis, Cliff; Harrison, Langdon, John, Postlethwaite, Phillips, T Curry, B Curry, Ross.

Replacements: Webber, Carlile, Cooper-Woolley, Dugdale, Neild, Warr, Redpath, Roebuck.

Glasgow Warriors: Bryce, Steyn, Jones, Johnson, Van der Merwe, Hastings, Price; Seiuli, Brown, Fagerson, Cummings, Gray, Nakarawa, Gordon, Wilson.

Replacements: Turner, Kebble, Nicol, Harley, Fusaro, G Horne, P Horne, Matawalu.