Tomos Williams puts paid to Sale comeback as Gloucester hold on

• Gloucester 36-20 Sale
• Three tries in 25 first-half minutes is too much visitors

These days, almost the worst thing a team can do in the Premiership is rack up an early lead, such is the likelihood of a stirring comeback. Sure enough, Gloucester ran rings around a leaden-footed Sale for half an hour; sure enough, Sale spent most of the rest of the match bulldozing away at Gloucester’s line.

At times in the second half, it felt inevitable Sale would overturn the 22-3 deficit that faced them midway through the first, such was the inability of their hosts to gain a hold on the game that had been so firmly theirs. The referee, Jack Makepeace, was not a popular man, but Gloucester’s ­indiscipline yielded nearly 20 penalties for the visitors.