Gloucester steamrollered their way to Twickenham for the first time since 1990, trampling all over Sale with brutal display of pack power.

The west country outfit were in rampant mood, obliterating the home side up front, then responding with two tries in as many minutes as Jason Robinson led a brief Sale revival.

It was sweet revenge for Gloucester's Parker Pen Shield semi-final defeat by the same opponents last month, with fly-half Ludovic Mercier making amends for the last-gasp penalty miss which cost his team victory in that match by booting home 18 points.

Gloucester advance to a Zurich Championship showdown with local rivals Bristol next Saturday and brought a losing end to life at Heywood Road for Sale, who will make a summer exit to Bury's Gigg Lane if club owner Brian Kennedy gets his way.

Having taken full advantage of Mercier's generosity by collecting the Shield - Sale's first trophy of the professional era - last weekend and with Heineken Cup combat next term already assured, it was hardly a surprise the home team lacked the cutting edge clearly visible in their opponents.

Gloucester were equally keen to add silverware to a undoubted season of promise and quickly established the forward dominance which was to bring them the opening try.

Hooker Olivier Azam was twice warned for driving the front-row up as the visitors' advance gathered momentum, but once the French international had sorted that problem out, Sale's scrum disintegrated.

Skipper Bryan Redpath was left to make the best of crumbling possession and when he failed to spot a loose ball spewing out of one set piece, Gloucester hooker Koli Sewabu pounced.

Despite his crucial failure in the previous semi-final meeting, Mercier showed few nerves in an impeccable opening period which saw him land three penalties, a conversion and a smartly-taken 40 metre drop goal.

The Frenchman might also have collected a try when he gathered his own chip, only for Mark Cueto to block his route to the line.

Through all this, Sale managed just a single Charlie Hodgson penalty and generally looked too tired to care.

Jason Robinson did produce a fantastic midfield burst which looked like ending in a touchdown for the Lions full-back, but former Wigan team-mate Henry Paul, whose overall performance was again indifferent, hauled him down with a textbook tackle.

Sale emerged with renewed vigour after the interval, Redpath cutting through the opposition defences on a couple of occasions with sniping bursts from the base of a ruck.

England tourist Pete Anglesea was another who started to get himself into the game, although it was Gloucester who came closest to crossing again when Terry Fanolua's 40-metre burst ended with a disappointing handling error.

Hodgson pulled a penalty back before Robinson ignited the home attack on the hour with a devastating burst from inside his own 22 metre line.

The Gloucester defence was left trailing as he darted over halfway, collected his own chip, then fed Martin Shaw, who in turn sent Cueto flying down the wing to touchdown in the corner.

Within two minutes, Robinson was causing more mayhem and only a last-ditch Robert Todd tackle prevented him from dancing in.

If that effort had gleaned some points, Sale might have recovered from an imposing interval deficit as they had done against Wasps and Pontypridd in the past two weeks.

But, after winning another scrum against the head, Gloucester launched another powerful assault on the home line and though there looked to be at least one possible knock-on as the forwards rumbled on, referee Steve Lander had no hesitation in awarding the try as scrum-half Andy Gomarsall charged home.

Sale pressed from the re-start but Cueto fumbled Hodgson's pass and Tom Beim collected and roared home from 60 metres to seal a well-deserved visitors' win.

The vociferous visiting supporters, many of whom had decamped in the club bar three hours before kick-off to watch England's World Cup efforts, were by now in jovial mood.

So, when Lander pulled up with a severe muscle strain in the final minutes, the match official found himself subjected to the loudest cheers of the afternoon.