Gloucester 27 Sale 28

Chris Jones, Sunday
By Sarah
April 30 2002

We're off to Oxford! The match could hardly have been any more nail biting but we managed to overcome Gloucester by four tries to three despite conceding seven points almost immediately after kick off. It was a great all round team effort.

Fanalou got over after three minutes and a further drop goal and penalty put Gloucester 13-0 ahead after 20 minutes. Sale looked bewildered

But having settled down a bit more, we fought back into the game and forced Gloucester to do some defending. A try even looked likely until a Sale infringement stopped play, but moments later Gloucester gave away a penalty and Charlie made it into three points for Sale.

Mark Cueto scored our first try after 33 minutes. I've never seen Charlie Hodgson shift like he did to outrun two defenders and set up Hanley for our second try in the left corner. That put the score at 13-13 at half time.

Jim must have found some fine words to say in the changing rooms because Sale came out and within twenty minutes had put fifteen more points past Gloucester. First there was a brilliant try as Sale players poured down the left wing and Gloucester couldn't stop their momentum, the well constructed move ending in Charl Marais's touchdown.

Sale continued to dominate play and in particular there were wonderful charges from Pete Anglesea and the revelation of recent games, Chris Jones. Then in the 52nd minute Dan Harris crossed over the line after Mark Cueto had steamed past a couple of men, and Charlie converted. The icing on the cake was a tremendous penalty kick from just in front of the half way line. The swirling wind had made kicking difficult all day but Charlie slotted this one over and made it look easy. Sale had built up a sizeable lead but somehow you knew that Gloucester were not just going to lie down and take it.

The fightback came with a try for James Forrester after Gloucester had hammered our line for a bit. He looped around the Sale defence on the right wing. With ten minutes to go Gloucester played to their strengths and used the superior power of their forwards to drive over the line. The try was Fanolou's second and Mercier's conversion took the score to 27-28.

For Sale fans the last ten minutes were torture. We had a nice bit of possession in Gloucester's half but got penalised for collapsing the scrum, and that gave the tractor boys a chance to do some attacking back in our half. Crunch time came in the 80th minute with a penalty to Gloucester, about 30m out from the posts and just to the right of them. Ludo Mercier is a brilliant kicker and he had been getting much harder kicks over all afternoon. This was surely to be the moment when victory was cruelly wrenched from Sale's hands...but what a cheer went up from the Sale crowd when the kick drifted wide! We were out of jail and just about managed to while away three minutes of injury time without giving Gloucester too much of a chance.

Sharky was removed from the pitch before the game for having an altercation with the opposition but the incident was not as bad as some reports have made it sound - he was attacked by a Gloucester supporter and fought back. OK so he incensed the Gloucester fans, but it's really not that big a crime and it was a ridiculous reaction from a supporter.

A mention must go to Steve Hanley who had a great game, both for his involvement in the tries and for making two big tackles. More of the same please! It was also a triumphant return to normal service for Pete Anglesea, who came away with the Man of the Match award.

Overall this was a great match and a great day - the arrangements with the coaches seemed to run smoothly, the Gloucester fans were generally good humoured and we even got free beer in the Sale bar afterwards. The final in Oxford on the 26th May should be an excellent occasion and I hope we get loads and loads of Sale supporters down there. Get all your friends and family to come! We will make the Kassan stadium reverberate with our cries of Saaale Saaale!

Click here for a disappointment-filled Gloucester report.