Gloucester have stitched back-to-back Gallagher Premiership wins for the first time in months — heroics at The Stoop followed by a Round 15 home win against Sale Sharks at Kingsholm — and a defiant Alex Sanderson said his side did "enough to win it on sheer guts alone" before being undone by their forwards.
"Wildly frustrating evening," the Sale director of rugby said. "When they made all the right choices in terms of their effort and how they fronted up — I thought we were brilliant at times on our own line, the number of repels that we had — and then to be that inaccurate by way of our set piece and some aspects of the breakdown, just the game kind of just slipped away from us. I thought we did enough to win it tonight just on sheer guts alone. You've got to win a line-out. You've got to have a solid platform but a scrum, and we had neither."
Sanderson was, however, satisfied with the response from his squad after recent dips. "Worlds away from where we were three weeks ago. We've backed that up week in, week out there. We'll keep hold of that and I'm proud of them for that and I'm thankful for it. But never happy with a loss."
The Gloucester match-winner — taking heavy hits at first receiver and emerging unscathed — said director of rugby George Skivington had pre-set the tone in the dressing room. "George Skivington spoke quite a lot about that to me pre-match. He'll be very happy. We've got a big pack, big backline. Benny Loa came back last week and he scored twice. We've gone after physicality and we just simplify everything and back down to basics."
Halftime was less a tactical reset than a reminder. "We've done that at halftime as well, and everyone's gone to do their own job and try to make things move freely. I think two things in attack and defence are probably saying too much. We just tried to simplify everything."
Asked whether back-to-back wins changed the group's identity in a season otherwise short on consistency, the Cherry-and-Whites' first receiver conceded the dressing room had begun to recognise itself. "We've been fantastic the last couple of weeks. The attitude's been fantastic. The group's shown what they can produce when they're really on it. I think it shows the potential of the group. I think it shows when we're really mentally on it, emotionally on it, what we can produce. So that's really exciting and it's about now creating some consistency with that."
With three rounds left, Gloucester remain longshots for the play-offs but said the result still mattered — both for the supporters and for the season's momentum into 2026/27. "We just want to try and move up the ladder as much as we can, but I think it's about us delivering performances that make our supporters proud because they come out every week supporting us. We haven't been on it every game this season. Next week's about doing what we did tonight and making them proud."
The slip leaves Sanderson chasing a top-four place that hinged on two missing platforms — line-out and scrum — that the Premiership's elite have abandoned. With Bath and Northampton seemingly cemented in the top two, the loss tilts Sale's path to a home semi-final further sideways.
"Never happy with a loss," Sanderson repeated. The honesty did not flatter the scoreboard.
