Gloucester 23 Sale 19: Gloucester are doubly grateful to Sione Kalamafoni

Sale looked as though they knew how to finish things, but it was far from obvious that they understood how to start them off

Sione Kalamafoni of Gloucester holds off Danny Cipriani to score (Getty )

It would be something of an exaggeration to suggest that Gloucester were walking in the valley of death midway through this flawed but fiercely-contested fixture, but they were certainly losing themselves in a dark alley until the Tongan No 8, Sione Kalamafoni, showed them the light. Two tries in five minutes from the man selected ahead of the England back-rower Ben Morgan turned events on their head and deposited the West Countrymen in a place of mid-table safety.

On a blustery night in the Cotswolds, the meeting of two sides long accustomed to being blown off course a little too easily was always likely to have its frustrations. Gloucester did some things right in the first half – Billy Meakes was a heart-and-soul contributor with his midfield defence; Jeremy Thrush, the recent engine room arrival from New Zealand, was responsible for some eye-catching approach work at close quarters; Matt Kvesic did his usual in the loose – but when it came to the end product, it was a different story.

True, they scored their first league try since the last day of October when, following an aerial misjudgement from the kick-off by the visiting wing Nev Edwards, a multi-phased attack opened up a route to the left corner for the full-back Rob Cook. But thereafter, the Cherry and White attacking game was short on bang and long on whimper. That they turned round 11-8 to the good was down to Billy Twelvetrees and his goal-kicking.

Sale’s problems were of the opposite kind. They looked as though they knew how to finish things – witness the try-scoring response from Edwards, who latched on to the sweetest of chips from Danny Cipriani direct from first-phase possession – but it was far from obvious that they understood how to start them off unless the outside-half pulled something special out of the hat.

There were some classy moments from the fast-developing No 8 Josh Beaumont, to be sure, but for all the northerners’ territorial domination, there was nothing much happening on the scoreboard.

That changed in the minutes after the interval. Cipriani squared things up from the tee when Gloucester messed up their exit after fielding the kick-off – an error that pretty much summed up their fragility – and after the home side lost their Lions Test hooker Richard Hibbard to the cooler for a maul collapse, the celebrity midfielder’s super-subtle distributive skills paved the way for a second try by Edwards.

Suddenly the Kingsholm regulars on the terraces started to bristle, bemoaning the impotence of their own side. Twelvetrees and company needed something fast and it was Kalamafoni who came up with it, not once but twice.

On 55 minutes, he completed a high-tariff finish at the corner flag after more excellent grunt-and-groan work from the busy Thrush. On 60, he clung to a flick off the deck from Henry Trinder in the heaviest of traffic and grounded the ball on the line. All Cipriani could summon by way of retaliation was a third penalty. It would not be enough.

Gloucester: Tries Cook, Kalamafoni 2 Conversion Laidlaw Penalties Twelvetrees.

Sale: Tries Edwards 2 Penalties Cipriani 3.

Gloucester: R Cook; C Sharples, B Meakes (H Trinder 49), B Twelvetrees (capt), J May; J Hook, W Heinz (G Laidlaw 51); P McAllister (N Wood 49), R Hibbard (D Dawidiuk 55), J Afoa, T Savage (M Galarza 57), J Thrush, R Moriarty, M Kvesic, S Kalamafoni (J Rowan 65).

Sale: M Haley; W Addison, S James, S Tuitupou, N Edwards; D Cipriani, P Stringer (C Cusiter 65); R Harrison (E Lewis-Roberts 53), T Taylor (N Briggs 65), V Cobilas (B Mujati 53), J Mills (A Ostrikov 56), B Evans, D Braid (capt, D Seymour 53), T J Ioane, J Beaumont.

Referee: JP Doyle (RFU)