A greatly improved Gloucester booked a place at Twickenham on May 29 for the Zurich Wild Card final, but only just.

In a dramatic finish, Sale scored three tries in the last 10 minutes to recover from trailing 37-14 to pull within two points at 37-35 in injury-time.

Then a wild pass by Mike Hercus was snapped up by Robert Todd to score to make the final score and take Gloucester to victory. Ironically, Todd will be joining Sale next season.

Whether Gloucester will actually take their place in the Zurich Wild Card depends on Wasps' European final next week.

If Wasps win, Gloucester will automatically be in Europe and will then have to miss the Wild Card final.

Depending on the outcome of other games, even though Sale lost, they could still stake a claim for the Wild Card final.

Gloucester had a lot to prove in this game after their debacle at Bath.

They started with a series of punishing attacks but were let down by their close passing.

Several tries threatened but Sale defended superbly and it took two penalties from Henry Paul to emphasise their dominance.

Then Jason Robinson worked his magic for the first of his three tries. He pulled Sale back with a superb solo try which Charlie Hodgson converted to put them in front.

The lead changed again within minutes with another Gloucester penalty by Paul.

Gloucester finally got their attack going with two splendid tries.

They broke clear on the left for flanker Andy Hazell to make the touchdown. Terry Fanolua then shattered the Sale defence and scored near the posts but Paul could not convert.

A clever chip through by Duncan McRae brought a third Gloucester try early in the second half with Marcel Garvey winning the race for the touchdown.

When Henry Paul made another conversion, Gloucester seemed home and dry but Robinson, leading Sale, had other ideas and another brilliant solo brought a try for Mike Hercus to convert.

Gloucester continued to be in control and two more Henry Paul penalties put them seemingly home and dry at 37-14.

Then, with only a few minutes to go, Sale's Steve Hanley broke through for Hercus to convert and two minutes later, Chris Jones claimed another try which Hercus converted.

Robinson struck for the third time in the 80th minute and again Hercus converted.

With Gloucester now in desperate danger at 37-35, they finally sealed it with the try gifted to Todd.