Premiership: Gloucester 33-32 Sale - Cherry and Whites edge thriller over Sharks

Tom Curtis landed one and missed two conversions after replacing Kieran Wilkinson in the 65th minute

Gloucester edged to a dramatic Premiership win over Sale at Kingsholm as Sharks' Tom Curtis missed a conversion with the game's last kick.

The hosts had built a 33-15 lead after 71 minutes, helped by two Louis Rees-Zammit tries on his Premiership return.

But late tries from Daniel du Preez and Gus Warr put Sale within six points.

And Tommy Taylor went over in injury time only for Curtis to fire the conversion off target and spare Gloucester's blushes.

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Coming off the back of their first win of the season against Worcester last week, Gloucester dominated the opening exchanges.

An early Adam Hastings penalty was followed by tries from Ben Morgan and Jack Singleton to give the Cherry and Whites a 15-0 lead after 19 minutes.

Raffi Quirke soon crossed to put the Sharks on the scoresheet, before British and Irish Lion Rees-Zammit went over in the corner for the home side.

Sale then grabbed another three points through a Kieran Wilkinson penalty to reduce the half-time deficit to 20-10.

In the second period, a Hastings penalty was quickly followed by Sale's second try through Arron Reed to take the visitors to within eight points.

But Gloucester looked to be out of touch by the 71st minute as a bonus-point try from Rees-Zammit and a Hastings drop-goal took the score to 33-15.

A defensive collapse followed as Du Preez, Warr and Taylor all crossed to give Curtis an opportunity to complete an unlikely turnaround in the final seconds.

But the fly-half's effort from the corner sailed wide as Gloucester narrowly held on to the win.

Gloucester head coach George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"I'm used to these tricky finishes - we had enough of them last year and fell short, so it's nice to fall the right side of it.

"We did enough to not put ourselves in that uncomfortable position in the last play of the game but we've just got to learn and make sure we close games out better.

"There were a few soft moments in there, to be honest. You can't have a team fighting really hard for 70 minutes, then a couple of people clock off and you let a couple of scores in.

"We didn't do things that we practised and let Sale back in the game. They were in the top four last season for a reason and if you give them opportunities, they're going to take them."

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"It was almost Harlequinesque in the final period but it would have been daylight robbery if we had won.

"For the first 65 minutes, we were outplayed in almost every area. They were more physical, more dominant at the maul and their kicking game was better.

"We have to do better as our plan was to have a powerful maul but it never functioned and some of the game management needs more clarity as there was some poor decision making.

"I was really proud and impressed by some of the young lads but we need a few more of our leaders back. I was happy with our effort and fight but not happy about losing."

Gloucester: Woodward, Rees-Zammit, Harris, Atkinson, May, Hastings, Meehan; Elrington, Singleton, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Davidson, Ackermann, Ludlow (capt), Morgan.

Replacements: Moulds, Rapava-Ruskin, Ford-Robinson, Alemanno, Clement, Chapman, Twelvetrees. Moyle.

Sale: Hammersley, Solomona, S. James, L. James, Reed, Wilkinson, Quirke; Harrison (capt), Langdon, Oosthuizen, JL. du Preez, JP. du Preez, Neild, Dugdale, D. du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Schonert, Wiese, Ross, Warr, Curtis, Roebuck.

Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU).

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