Steve Diamond, their director of rugby, may have it otherwise – “We have not got a squad which can compete with the top four” – but Sale kept themselves within touching distance of a place in the play-offs.
Diamond says his eyes are more firmly on a place in next season’s Champions Cup, but Sale’s four remaining games suggest it could be at Exeter on the final day of the regular season before he knows whether he has made the play-off semi-final.
“I do think the top four is a bit away from us, and we’re probably a bit off that,” said Diamond after a conclusive win, Sale’s 10th in the league this season, over Gloucester. “But [in] the top six we can finish.”
Sale go to London Irish, currently three places below them, in a fortnight, their entire squad fit and well, before Harlequins and Newcastle have to visit the AJ Bell Stadium. Sale remain in seventh spot after this victory, but the gap to Wasps above them is only a point.
“We have not got a squad which can compete with the top four but at home we are a good side, as we have proved against Northampton and Saracens,” said Diamond. “We can beat anyone here, but we have two difficult games away in London Irish and Exeter.”
Diamond also pointed that the run-in suits his “ageing squad” in as much as it gives them time to rest and recover after days like this when, in the biting cold and swirling damp, the forwards set up a platform and the defence denied Gloucester’s highly-rated backs a sniff of scoring.
After preparing with a five-day trip to Tenerife and some warm-weather training, Salford must have come as a big surprise to David Humphreys’ side because after parity in the opening quarter, they were never at the races.
Nonetheless it was not until the 23rd minute of some of the least memorable rugby of the season, during which the Gloucester fly-half James Hook landed one penalty and missed another, that Sale finally got a decent foothold in foreign territory.
A couple of chips from Danny Cipriani, looking rusty after his lack of Six Nations action, set up a couple of driven lineouts and when the second began to fall apart Josh Beaumont and then Andrei Ostrikov rumbled towards the line before the bustling Johnny Leota added a bit of acceleration to the muscle to get somewhere near the post. Matthew Carley asked the TMO to look before ruling that finally the Samoan had got home.
After that the first half returned to fumbles and errors, none worse than when Tom Savage dropped the ball when it looked easier to get over the Sale line and Ostrikov reprised the error at the other end. The Gloucester pack made up for their flanker’s mistake, shunting Sale around at the resulting scrum to win Hook his second successful penalty and cut the lead to one point.
Ostrikov’s mistake, which came after probably the best move of the first half – a clever lineout from Beaumont and Tommy Taylor setting up a swooping move which almost got Mark Cueto home – was not that expensive either, the referee already signalling the penalty, which Cipriani landed.
So it was 10-6 at half-time, the wind cold and swirling, and the rain making things extra difficult: Rome, Edinburgh and Twickenham on the Six Nations final day seemed a long way away, then two of the players with only minor roles on that day, Chris Cusiter with Scotland and Cipriani with England, combined to create the game’s only memorable moment.
First Cusiter found Tom Arscott with a clever reverse pass as the wing cut back inside before Cipriani delayed his delivery to Beaumont just long enough for a gap to open up in Gloucester ranks. It was enough to make Beaumont man of the match and put the game well beyond Gloucester, who last won at Sale in 2001 when Philippe Saint-André was their coach and Sale played at Heywood Road.
That was the season when Cueto made his Sale debut. On Sunday, in his final season, the 35-year-old played his 300th game.
Sale Haley; T Arscott (Brady, 73), Leota, Tuitupou, Cueto (Ford, 78); Cipriani, Cusiter (Cliff, 74); Harrison, Taylor (Neild, 72), Cobilas (Lewis-Roberts, 72), Ostrikov (Mills, 72), Hines, Braid (capt), Seymour (Lund, 67), Beaumont.
Tries Leota, Beaumont. Conversions Cipriani 2. Penalties Cipriani 3. Sin-bin Hines 67, Cipriani 77.
Gloucester B Burns (Meakes, 61); Sharples, Macken, Twelvetrees (capt), May; Hook, Braley (Robson, 67); Wood (Thomas, 67), Hibbard (Dawudiuk, 57), Afoa (Puafisi, 57); Stooke, Palmer (Hudson, 54), Savage (Galarza, 54), Kvesic, Kalamafoni (Moriarty, 67).
Penalties Hook 2.
Referee M Carley. Attendance 6,879.
