“A truly brutal encounter saw Gloucester end the game with only three players left on the pitch and suffer the death of star fly-half Ryan Lamb, but somehow managing to scrape home for a narrow win.

Sale received the kick in the first half, but Gloucester swarmed the backfield and when Jason Robinson tripped trying a jinking go for it when not in possession of the ball, Luke McAlister was left unprotected and sacked by Luke Narraway. The ball fell into a melee of players and we saw some intense rucking and counter-rucking from both sides. Eventually the ball popped loose and was recovered by Ryan Lamb, who offloaded to the flying Ian Balshaw to run in for the score. However, the start of Gloucester's injury nightmare had begun, as this was not before Marco Bortolami had been carried from the field writhing in agony.

Riled at the lock's injury, the Gloucester fans engaged in some behaviour more suited to a Premier League football game and attacked the ref. His replacement came on quaking in his boots, and the Gloucester players were quick to capitalize by sticking the boot in on the hulking prop Eifion Roberts. However, they failed to remove him from the field, and Sale retaliated by knocking Lamb to the floor and Robinson, keen to atone for his earlier error, came steaming in with a collossal boot to the face. That was all she wrote for Lamb, but the Gloucester players had another crack at Roberts, finally removing the hard-hitting menace from the pitch in the final moments of the half, but failing to score.

Now under pressure due to lack of men, Gloucester went for an all out attack down one flank on receiving the kick in the second half, but failed to cover the ball in their desperation. When one of their own players went down during a tackle, Sale had the chance to charge down the kick and the scramble was on. Gloucester flanker Akapusi Qera removed Sale's main ball-handling threat by badly injuring Robinson, but the power of the men in Blue-and-White began to show as they put player after player in Gloucester's dugout. Only an incredible blitz by Mike Tindall (linerat dodged 4+, 3+, 4+, 3+, and a GFI!) put down Luke McAlister when he looked certain to score. Narraway recovered the ball and charged downfield looking to seal the match, but was himself tackled and KO'd.

The tense final moments of the game saw the hulking Sebastien Chabal recover the ball, but he could not find the pass to put through to the man in space, and Gloucester fans everywhere breathed a sigh of relief whilst wondering more than a little at the lucky escape they had pulled off.

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Great game Mr Fantastic, I had Nuffle on my side right at the end with that blitz, you deserved the draw for sure. Hopefully will catch you again in the final rounds mate, the traitorous Lamb needs to be despatched for defecting to another team, even if it is after he kicked the bucket! ;0)”