Rampant Sale leave Bears with nothing

WHAT a difference a week makes. Last weekend, Bristol’s all singing and dancing 54-24 performance at Leicester was hailed as one of the best in Premiership history.

-  ROGER PANTING

That victory brought them a record 10th consecutive away win in the Premiership and all the talk leading up to this match intimated Bears would break another record by becoming the first team to score four tries or more in a game for the 10th successive time.

There could rarely have been such a poor prediction as Sale blew Bristol away with a superbly executed gameplan, based on ferocious tackling, which saw them pick up a third consecutive victory at Ashton Gate and remarkably their first away win of the season.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson said: “They were all loving it tonight and generally love rolling their sleeves up and putting their heads in dark places.

“It was a significant performance and so different to where we were two months ago.