Tomos Williams puts paid to Sale comeback as Gloucester hold on

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 the next half an hour bulldozing away at Gloucester’s line.

For much of 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.

Even after Max Llewellyn finished his second try, for a bonus point, in the 59th minute, giving Gloucester vital breathing space at the height of the siege, Sale kept coming. Tom Roebuck’s try four minutes later kept Sale hopes alive for the final quarter of an hour, but Tomos Williams’s brilliant solo try in the dying minutes put an end to any hopes of a latest dramatic comeback win.

And so Gloucester leapfrog Sale, who started the match four places ahead of them in the table. What a way to do it. That first half-hour was another attacking masterclass in a league full of them. Last weekend, Sale journeyed to these parts and choked the most outrageous attacking side of the moment, Bristol, keeping them to nil on their patch. This weekend they were bewildered.

Gloucester’s first try, after five minutes, was an extraordinary display of handling and angles of running out of their own 22. The peerless Santi Carreras finished it, supporting Williams for the final pass, but his lightning hands a few seconds earlier and about 70 metres further back had sprung Josh Hathaway from deep in their own territory.

Josh Hathaway touches down for Gloucester’s third try during a dominating first half against Sale. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

Llewellyn, playing on the wing, scored his first off a lineout a few minutes later, sent through Sale’s midfield by Seb Atkinson and stepping Tommy O’Flaherty for another virtuoso try. At that point, it was difficult to understand how Sale managed to keep out Bristol the week before, so soft was the defence.

They were torn apart again early in the second quarter, another blur of hands and support lines, this time from the forwards, but Hathaway’s try was chalked off for a forward pass from Williams. It was marginal.

No matter, Hathaway scored from the next play, this time popping up on the right to run to the corner after sweet hands down the line. Carreras converted from the touchline for that 22-3 lead. Only for the drama to follow a very different plot.