With three games in eight days Bath coach, Steve Meehan, had no choice but to make team changes that he wouldn't have done if there was no impending midweek match against Wasps and this appeared to disrupt Bath's play as they struggled to make much of an offensive impact. It was great to see Ryan Davis making his first start in almost eighteen months as we need him to be fit and ready complement Butch James. 

Three minutes in to the game saw the ever reliable (at kicking that is) Charlie Hodgson slot home his first goal kick of the match after Bath conceded a penalty just inside the Bath half.

Bath's first chance came after eight  minutes when Hape made a break and off-loaded to Higgins when the Sale line was within sniffing distance but unfortunately for the visitors, Mark Cueto snaffled the ball from the Bath winger and cleared his lines.

Eighteen minutes in to the game Sale scored their opening try through Mark Cueto to finish off a series of solid attacks. Lee Thomas set up the England winger and Andrew Higgins was close to preventing the score but the Cueto used his strength to push through the tackle. Hodgson missed his kick to keep the score at 8-0.

Bath finally got a chance to get some points on the board after 27 minutes when Sale were penalised for not rolling away at a ruck but Ryan Davis' attempt drifted to the right of the posts.

Bath were under great pressure on the half-hour mark after losing their line-out deep in the Sale half and a Hodgson cross-field kick almost set up a score for Cueto but the winger was able to set up his kicker, Hodgson for a score of his own. The Bath defence managed to smother Cueto but, in doing so, were too stretched to prevent Hodgson from running in under the Bath posts. The successful conversion took the score to 15-0 and Bath were certainly on the back foot.

Daniel Browne was replaced by Andy Beattie seven minutes before half-time after picking up an injury and we have to hope he's ok for the game against Wasps. Within five minutes Beattie thought he'd scored his second try in six days, after Nick Abendanon looked like scoring following his interplay with Ryan Davis, but the big Bath flanker was held short and Sale were penalised in their defensive activity. Ryan Davis scored with his penalty kick to make the half time score 15-3.

Bath started the second half with an early penalty score to take the visitors within nine points. Sale responded with good attacking play and were close to scoring their third try only to be held up over the line by the Bath defenders. However Bath conceded a penalty and Hodgson snatched another three points for the home side.

With 23 minutes left Ryan Davis scored his third penalty and gave Bath hope that a comeback was on the cards. Unfortunately Bath muffed the restart and it looked as though Lobbe would score but again strong Bath defence played a "get out of jail free" card and were awarded a penalty to give them a breather. Short replaced Harrison to add a bit of extra grunt in the pack. Moments later Bath had another let off when Lobbe should have set up Bruno for a try but his poor pass denied a definite score.

Sale scored their third try, after 68 minutes, following an eight man scrummage shove that was finished off by Lobbe but Hodgson missed his conversion. Five minutes later Bath were awarded a penalty, and Sebastien Bruno was sin binned, under the Sale posts but opted for a scrum rather than take the easy points. Jonny Fa'amatuainu  took the ball from the back of the scrum and scored Bath's only try. Jack Cuthbert made the score 23-16 with his conversion.

As often happens, the Sale sin binning was evened up with five minutes left on the clock when Jonny Fa'amatuainu was asked to leave the pitch for persistent offside. Sale had a very late penalty in front of the Bath posts and opted for a scrum to try and get a bonus point and also deny Bath their point, but failed to make the score.

The bonus point took Bath to fourth spot in the Premiership.

Referee: Sean Davey

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