Gloucester issue Gareth Anscombe injury update, laud Tomos Williams

Gloucester boss George Skivington hailed the influence of Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams after his team underlined their Gallagher Premiership play-off credentials with a 36-20 victory over Sale Sharks.

Williams scored one of Gloucester’s five tries and was a threat throughout the game to a Sale defence that prevented Bristol from scoring a point against them eight days earlier. “Tomos was great again today. He has delivered on and off the field. He is just full of energy and links our play up well,” Skivington said.

“He is a cheeky chap. He has a laugh and all the rest of it but when it comes to training and playing, he is on it, he is not messing around any more, and his ability to flick the switch between the two is great. He is engaged, he wants to win, he is competitive, and his influence will rub off on the young lads here.”

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Wales international back Max Llewellyn scored two tries as Gloucester’s five-point maximum kept them firmly in the top-four race.

Sale’s hopes of securing a fourth successive Premiership win floundered on an outstanding first half display by Gloucester that produced touch downs for Llewellyn, full-back Santi Carreras and wing Josh Hathaway and saw their attacking game showcased in all its glory.

“It is very hard work to attack the way we attack,” Skivington added. “The boys are working hard on things like timing and lines of running. There is a huge amount of work that goes into it and we have seen the pay-off from that. We have got trust in the players. They have got 100 per cent backing from me to go for it.”

Williams’ club and international half-back partner Gareth Anscombe, meanwhile, went off at half-time and Skivington said: “He took a bang on the knee. I talked to him at half-time and he wasn’t moving particularly well, so we knocked it on the head.

“We could have pushed him out and kept him playing but I am not an advocate of doing that. I tend to whip lads off when I feel they are not quite 100 per cent. Hopefully, it is nothing too serious.”

Sale trailed 22-3 after 26 minutes and it proved too much for them to claw back despite tries from skipper Ben Curry, hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and wing Tom Roebuck, while centre Rob du Preez kicked a penalty and conversion.

Llewellyn’s 60th-minute score and a late Williams touch down saw Gloucester home, with Carreras completing an accomplished performance by landing a penalty and four conversions for a 16-point haul.

Sale rugby director Alex Sanderson said: “We gave ourselves some opportunities to at least get something out of the game. What I was most frustrated about was how we pulled the trigger in that second half compared to the first half, when we looked as if we were playing within ourselves.

“You don’t win games by conceding 36 points often, away from home at Kingsholm, so we have to have a look at our system defence. The intent was there but I don’t think system-wise we were on the same page.

“A couple of changes and we seemed to lose a bit of system, people coming out of system and trying to solve things by themselves. Against the best attacking sides when you are doing that, they can pick you off all too easily, which they did.”