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Bath 18 Sale Sharks 16

Jenny Dixon
27/12/2006

SHARKS' gruelling Christmas period opened with a narrow two-point defeat against Bath on Friday night.

Hopes of a turnaround in Sale's fortunes, following a dismal spell of injuries, were dashed by the boot of Chris Malone, who scored a drop goal in the 78th minute.

A try by Sharks centre Chris Bell, the only one of the match, put the current Premiership champions in contention for a valuable win at the Recreation Ground, which could have reinstated them in the top four.

However, Sale returned with only a losing bonus point after Malone followed his five successful penalty kicks with Bath's match-winning drop-goal.

Just five days after a hard-fought victory against Stade Francais in the Heineken Cup, Philippe Saint-Andre's depleted squad managed to force their way into a seven-point lead after 54 minutes.

But the home side regained control and scraped a victory, leaving Sharks fans to again contemplate what effect so many injuries will have on the team's ambitions this season.

Malone opened the scoring with a successful penalty, his second attempt of the match.

Sharks flyhalf Lee Thomas countered with a well-taken kick of his own, but indiscipline saw Sale slip to a six-point deficit when Malone posted his third penalty after visiting number eight Sebastien Chabal was sin-binned.

However, Sharks recovered to go into the interval with a slim one-point lead thanks to Bell's try which was created from a lofted punt by Thomas.

Bath's Nick Abendanon missed the catch, allowing Bell to collect the loose ball and sprint in to score under the posts.

Thomas converted to give Sharks their 10-9 lead at the break.

Breakaway effort

The visitors continued to press after the interval, Chris Mayor going close to the tryline with a breakaway effort, although it was left to Thomas to boost the score with two further penalties.

But Bath had the last laugh as they regained control with six more points from Malone's boot before clinching victory with the late 40-yard drop goal.