Roebuck & Cowan-Dickie score twice in Sale victory

Tom Roebuck scored a try in each half for Sale and also set up Gus Warr's score late in the first period

Gallagher Premiership

Sale (14) 31

Tries: Roebuck 2, Warr, Cowan-Dickie 2 Cons: Du Preez 3

Gloucester (8) 27

Tries: Williams 2, Englefield, Llewellyn Cons: Barton 2 Pen: Barton

Tom Roebuck and Luke Cowan-Dickie marked their call-ups to England's training squad earlier on Friday with two tries apiece in Sale Sharks' narrow Premiership home win over Gloucester.

A Tomos Williams try gave Gloucester an early lead but Sharks winger Roebuck expertly gathered a bouncing pass out wide to respond for the home side.

Roebuck then turned provider for Gus Warr to cross under the posts and establish a 14-8 lead at the interval.

Roebuck and Williams swapped tries after the break before Sale hooker Cowan-Dickie touched down twice in the closing stages to secure a bonus-point win.

Caolan Englefield and Max Llewellyn scored for Gloucester in the closing stages to earn two bonus points and create a tense finish, but Sale held on.

The Cherry and Whites' defeat was dampened by the loss of Christian Wade to a rib injury just before half-time.

Gloucester have earned a try bonus point in each of their first three Premiership games this season, although they have lost two of them, and they showed flashes of quality to score four times at Sale.

Scrum-half Williams capitalised on full-back George Barton's break down the right touchline to jink infield for the opening try of the game, and he showed tidy footwork to control the ball before adding his second, while Llewellyn superbly grabbed a high crossfield kick near halfway to set up Englefield as the visitors mounted their comeback.

But it was Sale who came away with their second Premiership victory of the season, helped by two quickfire scores from Cowan-Dickie - the first from a line-out catch-and-drive and the second from another smart line-out move.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"Tom Roebuck is on form at the moment. He's in the [England] squad but he wants to get in the team. He's hungry for another cap. This was him showing what he was capable of.

"He has worked on his acceleration and ability to beat a man and you could see that today, he’s just getting stronger and better.

"I'm so happy for [Luke Cowan-Dickie]. With him getting back into that England team, that was a bit of a statement for him that he means business this season. It feels like he's got a new lease of life."

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"It was always going to be a challenge. You know that playing rugby up here is going to put you under a lot of pressure, but ultimately we've chosen a way we're going to play and we figured this was going to be an acid test for us.

"We knew exactly what Sale would be drilling all week and fair play, they did it really well.

"I don't know what the running metres were for our lads but they attacked and attacked and eventually we came away with two points.

"We didn't quite flick the switch in defence tonight. We attacked really well but there's going to be pain with the way we're attacking - you can't play the way we're playing and not expect a few things to go wrong, and we'll live with that because when it's good, it's good."

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, Addison, Bedlow, Reed; Du Preez (capt), Warr; McIntyre, Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, Bamber, Beaumont, Van Rhyn, Dugdale, Birch.

Replacements: Caine, Onasanya, Harper, Burrow, Roets, Thomas, Curtis, Nayacalevu.

Sin-bin: Carpenter (78).

Gloucester: Barton; Wade, Harris, Atkinson, Llewellyn; Anscombe, Williams (capt); Rapava Ruskin, Blake, Fasogbon, Clarke, Clark, Clement, Taylor, Mercer.

Replacements: Singleton, Vivas, Knight, Alemanno, Ackermann, Tuisue, Englefield, Atkinson.

Referee: Luke Pearce.