Bath 13-16 Sale

Sale shocked Bath to claim a hard-fought 16-13 victory and record just their second away win in the Premiership since October 2010.

Both teams enjoyed some possession early on but the home side were the first to get on the scoreboard. After a penalty was awarded at a line-out, Olly Barkley calmly slotted it through the posts and passed 2,000 career points for Bath in the process.

Midway through the first half Michael Claassens extended the lead. After great breaks from Jack Cuthbert and Matt Banahan, the South African scrum-half found a big gap on the fringes of a ruck and took full advantage to make it 10-0 after the conversion was added.

After some toing and froing and a couple of missed kicks, that is how the score remained until early in the second half when Nick Macleod, having missed another penalty a few minutes before, finally registered Sale's first points with the boot.

Less than ten minutes later they were level when a bullocking run down the middle from Tony Buckley created the space for the returning Mark Cueto to score his 71st Premiership try in the corner and Macleod added the extras from the touchline.

Barkley and Macleod exchanged penalties as the second half wore on to ensure that the game was finely poised at 13-13 going into the final ten minutes.

With the home fans getting increasingly exasperated with the officials, another penalty was awarded following a solid Sale scrum and Macleod took the opportunity to put the visitors into the lead for the first team.

The game was far from over though and there was still time for much more drama. Bath laid siege to the Sale try-line in the dying stages and twice turned down an easy three points in front of the posts in favour of kicking to the corner as they went in search of the win

This was a decision they would ultimately live to regret as the Sharks' defence held the ball up over the line and resisted everything the hosts threw at them. The game was up when Claassens lost the ball after one of his customary darts forward and Sale recorded their first win in the last four Premiership matches.