Saturday’s Prem action featured an upset away win for Gloucester against Exeter at Sandy Park, while Bristol Bears beat Sale Sharks comfortably to ruin Courtney Lawes’ homecoming…
Exeter 24-45 Gloucester
New-look Gloucester got their season off to a cracking start with an emphatic 45-24 bonus-point victory over last season’s beaten Prem finalists Exeter at Sandy Park.
Inspired by impressive summer arrivals Dewi Lake, Jac Morgan and Jean Kleyn, it was Gloucester’s first league win on Devon soil since 2015.
Exeter, ravaged by illness on top of the squad absences they already had, looked out of sorts for large parts of the game and only in the closing stages, once the outcome was beyond doubt, did they look more like their usual selves.
Exeter reached the final of last year’s Prem
A beautifully judged kick-pass by full-back Ben Redshaw created a try after only five minutes for winger Ben Loader, but Exeter responded with an intense period of pressure which resulted in tight-head prop Josh Iosefa-Scott burrowing over from close range, converted by Henry Slade.
However, more clever kicking from the Cherry and Whites, this time with an excellent chip over the defence by scrum-half Caolan Englefield, served up a touchdown for England centre Seb Atkinson.
Fly-half Charlie Atkinson added a conversion and to another try by Loader, his second of the game, after the former’s excellent crossfield kick found the wide man.
England A back rower Ethan Roots went on a barnstorming run down the left-hand touchline to score after Greg Fisilau’s initial break.
Exeter criminally gave away a soft penalty from the restart, Gloucester kicked to the corner and skipper and hooker Lake popped up with the ball from the driving maul to dot down in the corner for the bonus-point try, with Charlie Atkinson converting superbly from the touchline to give a 14-point lead at the interval.
Exeter were 14 points behind at the interval
It took only six minutes of the second half for Welsh international Lake to turn his contribution into a brace, and Gloucester all but wrapped the game up on the hour mark with a brilliant individual score from winger Will Joseph, who ran from halfway, skipping away from tackles to ground the ball under the uprights, with Charlie Atkinson converting.
Exeter hit back with Italian international scrum-half Stephen Varney racing away to cross against his old club and Slade improving the score for a 38-19 deficit.
A Redshaw tackle denied Varney a second try soon after, and even after blindside flanker Freddie Thomas was yellow-carded for an infringement close to his own line, Gloucester’s defence held firm once again.
The Chiefs managed to salvage something with a bonus-point score four minutes from time, with replacement hooker Louie Gulley rounding off a training-ground move on his Prem debut from a five-metre lineout, only for Junior Denny to add a seventh for Gloucester to end it.
Sale Sharks 24-34 Bristol Bears
Sale were well beaten by the visiting Bristol Bears
Courtney Lawes’ Sale debut ended in defeat as Bristol ran in five tries to open their Prem Rugby campaign with an entertaining 34-24 win in Salford.
The 37-year-old England great made his first appearance in the competition since he led Northampton to the title at Twickenham in 2024 but it was Pat Lam’s Bears who took the spoils.
Bristol forced the early pressure but former Sale fly-half AJ MacGinty missed a relatively straightforward penalty early on.
From there Sale began to enjoy a period of pressure which culminated in Cowan-Dickie squeezing over from close range inside the right channel after good work from Roe moments earlier, with George Ford added the conversion to make it 7-0 before Bristol came back and had a try from full-back Tom Jordan ruled out following a quickly taken lineout.
But the Bears claimed their first try in the 12th minute when James Williams’ long pass found Rees-Zammit and the Wales international dived over in the right corner.
Ford then booted a penalty for Sale but Rees-Zammit had his second try for Bristol in the 23rd minute after taking a pass from Jordan and crossing in the right corner again.
A minute before the interval, the visitors scored their third try when scrum-half Randall collected possession and dived over from close range.
Williams, who had scored a penalty in the 31st minute, then converted Randall’s try to give Bristol a 20-10 interval lead.
Early in the second half, Sale winger O’Flaherty raced clear to score in the right corner and Ford’s second conversion cut Bristol’s lead to three points.
After a period of pressure on Sale’s line, Bristol had their fourth try in the 57th minute when Randall sniped over the line from close range.
O’Flaherty finished well again for his second but Gwilliam powered over from close range for Bristol’s fifth and Williams added his third conversion to leave Sale empty-handed.