In the opening ten minutes the home side dominated territory and possession and Sale led with a first minute penalty to Hodgson after Bath had been penalised on the opening drive of the game. The visitors were penalised eight minutes later for being offside and Hodgson slotted his kick home to make the score 6-0.

After 12 minutes Bath started to get in to their game with a range of sweeping attacks, and this pressure saw Sale concede their first penalty. Rather than opt for a relatively simple three points Bath chose an attacking line-out but failed to take advantage of their opportunity and conceded a knock-on scrum in front of the Sale posts.

Sale stretched their lead after 24 minutes when Hodgson chipped the Bath defence on half-way to open up the field for the charging Mark Cueto who then fed Chris Bell for the opening try of the game. Hodgson scored the conversion to make the score 13-0. 

Bath were awarded another penalty towards the half-hour mark and again opted for touch rather than bag the sy points with a kick. However they were denied scoring a try by good defensive tackling out on the left wing.

Bath were given a glimmer of hope that they could get back in to the game when Brent Cockbain was yellow carded shortly before half-time for appearing to start a bit of a scuffle. This followed an excellent interception and dash up-field by Rhys Crane when Hodgson tried to find Andy Tuilagi with a risky looping pass. Within moments of Cockbain's departure Bath drove forward and an inside pass found Stuart Hooper who scored his first try for his new club. Jack Cuthbert converted to make the half-time score 13-7.

Bath narrowed the deficit to three points early in the second half after the visitors got off to a strong start. However Bath gave back the three points a few moments later with another Hodgson penalty.

To compensate for this slackness Bath scored their second try after Eliot Fuimaono-Sapolu broke through the Sale defence to feed Shontayne Hape for his first try for Bath. Jack Cuthbert kicked Bath in to the lead with his conversion. Five minutes later Michael Stephenson added to the Bath try tally after Sale were stretched across the pitch to create openings for the Bath attackers. Another Cuthbert conversion took the score to 16-24.

Sale gathered themselves after being on the back foot for large parts of the second half and, with over five minutes remaining, finally crossed the Bath line when Hodgson fed Chris Bell for his second try. The conversion was missed to make the score 21-24.

Sale thought they had grabbed a late win when they charged down through the Bath defence and it was only because Hodgson was tackled a yard short of scoring in the final minute that Bath were able to hang on and win by three points.

A great performance and congratulations to Stuart Hooper and Shontayne Hape for their first tries for Bath. Comment must also be made about Eliot Fuimaono-Sapolu, who appeared to be well in control of the Bath midfield and contributed to so much of Bath's success.

Referee: Peter Allen

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