Gallagher Premiership review: Shock win for Sale at Gloucester
A review of Saturday's action in rugby union's Gallagher Premiership, as Sale produced one of the shocks of the season and Saracens also won.
Sale pulled off one of the shocks of the season with a comprehensive 30-15 defeat of third-placed Gloucester at a sold-out Kingsholm on Saturday.
The ninth-placed club trailed 10-0 at the end of the first quarter before Sale scored 30 unanswered points as the home side had no answers to the ferocity and commitment of their opponents.
Sale tries came from Chris Ashton, Faf de Klerk, Rob Webber and Denny Solomona, with Robert du Preez adding two conversions and two penalties.
Jaco Visagie and Henry Walker scored tries for Gloucester with Billy Twelvetrees kicking a penalty and conversion.
Saracens returned to winning ways with a battling 25-17 triumph over a resilient Worcester Warriors despite trailing at half-time at Allianz Park.
Mark McCall's men shipped a pair of early scores to the energetic Warriors before tries from Calum Clark and David Strettle turned the tide after the break.
Capitalising on Exeter's shock defeat at Northampton Saints, Saracens went some way to repairing their defeat at Sandy Park last time out but stay second in the Gallagher Premiership behind the Chiefs.
Harlequins hooker Dave Ward escaped a red card after spitting in the direction of Thomas Young in an incident that marred a 20-13 victory over Wasps.
A sell-out crowd for Big Game 11 at Twickenham saw Ward spit towards Young in the 11th minute before stepping on his ankle, provoking an angry reaction from the prone Welsh flanker.
Referee Craig Maxwell-Keys sent Ward to the sin-bin but only for treading on Young having appeared to miss the more serious offence, for which he is almost certain to be cited under the banner of acting against the spirit of good sportsmanship.
Citing officer Buster White has 24 hours to lodge a complaint against the Quins front row, who was a fringe England contender in 2014 and now faces a minimum four-week ban that could climb to 12 weeks if it is deemed high end.
White will also be interested in an earlier incident that saw Ward perform a neck roll on Young, which went unpunished.
The foul play failed to take the shine off Harlequins' fifth win of the season, a result founded on resilience and tries by Alex Dombrandt and Joe Marchant that lifts them to fourth in the Premiership.
Wasps were their own worst enemy at times and are heading in the opposite direction, with one win in 13 games leaving them in seventh, although they will take comfort from a strong finish that yielded a losing bonus point.
On Sunday, Bristol stormed back from a half-time deficit to pick up a valuable five Premiership points with a thrilling 35-28 victory against Newcastle at Ashton Gate.
Tom Pincus scored the match-winner three minutes from time with Bristol's other tries coming from Charles Piutau, Luke Morahan and Harry Randall. Ian Madigan converted two and kicked two penalties with Callum Sheedy adding a penalty and a conversion.
Newcastle's tries came from Vereniki Goneva, Adam Radwan and Callum Chick with Toby Flood converting two and kicking three penalties.
Determined Bath climbed back into fifth place by beating Leicester 23-16.
Tries from Jamie Roberts, Mike Catt and Ruaridh McConnochie gave the home side enough of a platform to see off a Tigers comeback which earned a losing bonus point.
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