Gloucester Rugby beat Sale Sharks 29-28 at the CorpAcq Stadium on Saturday in Round Three of the 2025/26 PREM Rugby CupOllie Davies of Sale Sharks is tackled by Will Knight of Gloucester during the PREM Rugby Cup match between Sale Sharks and Gloucester Rugby at CorpAcq Stadium on November 02, 2025 in Salford, England. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for Sale Sharks)

Gloucester Rugby ended a run of six straight defeats in all competitions with the club’s talented young guns winning 29-28 away at Sale Sharks in the third round of the PREM Rugby Cup.

A youthful Cherry and Whites side, with just a sprinkling of first team regulars like George Barton and Josh Hathaway, who was making his first appearance of the season after recovering from an ankle injury in pre-season, secured a bonus point win, touching down twice through Welsh flanker Caio James, Jack Cotgreave and Will Trenholm, with George Barton adding three conversions and a penalty in a masterful display from stand-off. Sale made it tight to the last whistle, touching down through Toby Wilson, Osian Roberts, James Harper and Nye Thomas, with Tom Curtis adding all four conversions.

The away win takes Gloucester top of Pool A, but with another five group games still to be played.

Gloucester opened the scoring after just six minutes, with James using his low centre of gravity to power over in the corner to complete a successful series of drives from the visiting forwards. The Cherry and Whites attack threatened to cut through on a couple of occasions, but Sale managed to level the scores through powerful centre Wilson, who found himself in the middle of a maul to bag the try.

Redshaw, making his first start at full-back for Gloucester, having recovered from a foot injury he sustained on England U20s duty in the summer, then had starring moments on both sides of the ball, coming up with a stunning try-saving tackle before flashing down the left flank moments later and putting Cotgreave away with an inside pass.

But Sale never go away, especially on their home turf, and replied with a classically direct try through the middle from centre Roberts, who managed to steamroll through soft tackles from Max Knight and then the over-stretched Barton to level the scores.

But on the stroke of halftime, following a sparky break from Mikey Austin, Trenholm finished a free-flowing attack with a physical finish down the blindside to make it 21-14 to the visitors at the break.

Sale pulled the scores level again with a powerful close-range finish from prop Harper.

With 10 minutes to go, Gloucester took their opportunity to put points on the board with a penalty from Barton after lock Deian Gwynne won the chance for his fly-half after a strong jackal following a dominant tackle from Will Knight.

With four minutes remaining, a catch and drive maul try from James put the result beyond doubt, but Sale ensured they picked up two bonus points with a 82nd minute try from replacement Thomas.

Following next weekend off, the Cherry and Whites face reigning PREM Rugby Cup campaigns Bath at Kingsholm in this competition next.

Sale Sharks: 15. Ollie Davies, 14. Obi Ene, 13. Osian Roberts, 12. Toby Wilson, 11. Alex Wills, 10. Tom Curtis, 9. Dom Hanson, 8. Jos Gilmore, 7. Tristan Woodman, 6. Seb Kelly, 5. Tom Burrow ©, 4. Patrick Hogg, 3. James Harper, 2. Ethan Caine, 1. Tumy Onasanya.

Replacements: 16. Alfie Longstaff, 17. Ralph McEachran, 18. Patreece Bell, 19. Dylan Hodkinson, 20. Huw Davies, 21. Nye Thomas, 22. Albert Bradshaw, 23. Reuben Logan.

Gloucester Rugby: 15 Ben Redshaw. 14 Josh Hathaway, 13 Will Knight, 12 Max Knight, 11 Jack Cotgreave, 10 George Barton, 9 Mikey Austin, 1 Archie McArthur, 2 Kealan Freeman-Price, 3 Harry Wright, 4 Freddie Stevens, 5 Deian Gwynne, 6 Caio James, 7 Harry Taylor (C), 8 Will Trenholm.

Replacements: 16 Kealan Freeman-Price, 17 George Alexander, 18 Ollie Minnis, 19 Olly Allport, 20 Jack Gilbert, 21 Rhys Price, 22 Will Butler, 23 Jake Morris.

Referee: Sara Cox

Assistant referees: Jamie Parr and Jamie Leahy