By Whaley Shark
April 9 2011

Two years, two bloody years, as near as dammit! That’s how long it is since we last got a 4-try bonus in the Premiership. But it was all the better for the wait and, 24 hours later, I’m still bouncing. So thank you to the team, the coaches, and as raucous an EP crowd as I’ve heard in a while.

Mind you, we didn’t start too well, messing up the kickoff, setting up Gloucester with an attacking scrum from which they won a penalty. Because we’d be been saved by the post, and we wouldn’t be Sale if we did it the easy way, we messed up the clearance, gave them another bite at the cherry, and went 3-0 down within five minutes.  Although we hit back and, for a magical moment, seemed to have put Wame over, it was called back for a forward pass. Nevertheless, Charlie equalised for us with a penalty won at the resulting scrum.

The next ten minutes were evenly matched, and pretty scrappy. We were trying to move the ball, but it just wouldn’t come together. Finally, Gloucester put a penalty to touch about ten metres out, rumbled the maul towards our line, then whipped the ball out for Molenaar to cross. 3-10 down after the first quarter looked suspiciously like unpromising business as usual. We carried on trying to create something, but not quite clicking. Fortunately Gloucester also struggled to create scoring chances and Charlie kept us in the game with a couple more penalties. As the clock ticked down, we gave Gloucester another penalty and the mutters of “13-9 down at half time- at least we’re still in it” started. However, we’d saved the best till last. Gloucester slid a grubber kick through our defence, Nick Macleod gathered it and ran it back, then fed Andy Tuilagi. His strong, diagonal run turned the Gloucester defence and created enough space for Paul Williams to power over in the right corner. With the conversion, we went in 16-13 ahead, and everyone was rather more cheerful.

We had a fright at the beginning of the second half, when a slow clearance was charged down and Gloucester put us under severe pressure. However, we escaped with only a penalty conceded, and regained the lead a couple of minutes later through a Charlie penalty. Gloucester weren’t letting us off the hook though, and a missed tackle really put us on the rack. We held out in a series of goal-line scrums, then won a penalty to relieve the pressure. That was only temporary relief though, because Gloucester drove back into our 22 before we turned them over and Charlie fired a long clearance downfield. A horrible bounce turned the Gloucester winger May inside out and Will Addison, on his Premiership debut, just had the gas to get over in the left corner.

Well, that worked OK, so we tried it again at the restart. Charlie put up another bomb, the Gloucester defence was caught by a good chase, and we worked the ball to Paul Williams who had too much strength for the defence. With the conversion, we were 31-16 ahead just before the hour. Gloucester narrowed the gap with another penalty, then Charlie, thinking and moving quickly, pinched a cheeky try. With the Gloucester defence assuming he was going to take the three points from a penalty in the Gloucester 22, he tapped and ran left to cross as the defence stood by. I can still hear my Dad- “Always watch what the b******s are up to”.  Anyway, 17 points ahead, bonus point secure, and only 15 minutes to go. Surely we’ve got this one in the bag?

Or perhaps not. Gloucester created a simple try just a couple of minutes later, sucking in our midfield defence and throwing a pass wide out right for May to gallop over. With the clock running down, Gloucester pushed hard for the bonus point. A lineout mess, not the first of the evening, gave Gloucester a scrum. After a few phases, we scrambled a probing grubber into touch, and from the lineout Gloucester set up a series of attacking scrums. We were creaking all too obviously and, after penalising us repeatedly at the scrum, the referee gave Gloucester a penalty try. Fortunately, there was only a minute left and, before Gloucester could build more momentum, we pinched the ball and scrambled it into touch for a fine win.

Looking back, maybe this has been coming for a while- we’ve shown adventure on and off since Christmas, perhaps less so in critical, must-win games like Leeds at home, but maybe we are starting to play with more cutting edge? Anyway, whatever the origin of last night’s performance, I was delighted to see it. Charlie gave a top quality masterclass and thoroughly deserved his Man of the Match award. We had a bit more weight in the scrum and, while Gloucester’s pack wasn’t as fearsome as some, we seemed to cope a bit better, sufficient to give us something of an attacking platform. Honourable mentions to Chris Bell (some fine defence and good work at the breakdown), Will Addison (fine debut), Will Cliff (snappy service), and Paul Williams (how we’ve missed him). We’ve still some work to do on lineouts and restarts, but I’m quite looking forward to the next few weeks