Aviva Premiership: Gloucester win puts more pressure on Sale Sharks

Billy Twelvetrees attacks the Sale defence

Freddie Burns: Kicked 19 points for Gloucester

Fly-half Freddie Burns kicked 19 points as Gloucester inflicted another Aviva Premiership defeat on Sale on Saturday.

Gloucester confirmed their 29-3 victory with a couple of second-half tries, Akapusi Qera touching down before the late award of a penalty try.

The defeat, an eighth in nine league outings, leaves Sale rooted to the bottom of the table, while Gloucester climb, for 24 hours at least, into third.

The visitors were made to pay for early indiscipline at Kingsholm as Burns landed two penalties within the first 11 minutes to give his side a 6-0 lead.

But lessons were not learned by the Sharks who presented Burns with a further three opportunities inside the first 25 minutes to allow the recent England call-up to extand the advantage to 15-0.

Sale did manage to cut out the mistakes and asserted a certain amount of control towards the end of the half, with Danny Cipriani kicking a three-pointer of his own shortly before the interval to give them renewed hope.

The visitors were much brighter after the break and had several chances to reduce the arrears only to see the final pass let them down on more than one occasion.

They were made to pay for their profligacy just past the hour mark as Gloucester flanker Qera all but killed the game by touching down for a score that Burns converted.

The Cherry and Whites then rubber-stamped victory five minutes from time when a dominant push-on at a scrum saw referee Luke Pearce award a penlaty try that Burns once again converted.