Ford shows his class to guide Sale to emphatic win on opening night

Thursday may be the new Friday in some walks of life but when it comes to Prem rugby, the jury is out. Sale's victory over Gloucester to kick off the new season was workmanlike, enough to earn a bonus point but left you suspecting that our parents might have been right all along: do not play out on a school night.

- Gerard Meagher

George Ford kicked a penalty and two conversions to ease Sale home

Tries from Tom Roebuck, Nathan Jibulu, Joe Carpenter and Hyron Andrews gave the Sharks a winning start to the campaign, founded on set-piece power, a route one approach and George Ford's supreme game management. Not all Prem matches have to be try-fests - we may come to yearn for agricultural contests such as these later in the season - but this season opener will not win many beauty points.

Admittedly a late rush shortly before kickoff ensured that what threatened to be a sparse crowd was anything but, although there was an air of reservation in the atmosphere, a sense of self-restraint. Thursday nights work in France, as many things do - the second tier does it to great success - but the Prem's broadcasters, TNT Sports, consider it a necessary evil, a means to avoid a scheduling clash with tomorrow's women's World Cup final at Twickenham.