Sale 23-6 Gloucester: Danny Cipriani kicks five out of five to inspire the Sharks to a comfortable win in the Aviva Premiership

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For Danny Cipriani and Billy Twelvetrees, this must have felt like a monumental comedown, eight days after they had participated in one of the great occasions at Twickenham.

At least Cipriani had a win to savour, although the Sale fly-half finished Sunday's game in the sin-bin.

For Gloucester captain Twelvetrees, it was a miserable result on a miserable day in Salford.

Danny Cipriani kicked five out of five to help Sale Sharks to a comfortable victory over Gloucester

Both men had come off the bench as England thrashed France in the Six Nations finale only to miss out on the title again, but there was no residual goodwill as they clashed three minutes from time at the AJ Bell Stadium, before Cipriani was yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on.

Compared to a last day of the championship that was awash with audacious artistry, this was an alien form of rugby. It was wet and windy and chilly and Sale were more pragmatic and clinical in the difficult conditions.

Gloucester had been in Tenerife for a week of warm-weather training, which wasn't ideal preparation for an arm-wrestle contest in the North West. After enjoying the sun, David Humphreys' side caught a cold and yet another defeat in this fixture has left Gloucester stuck in ninth place in the Aviva Premiership table. They continue to punch below their weight.

The first half was grim fare. James Hook struck two penalties for the visitors but Sale snatched a try in the 22nd minute when Samoa centre Johnny Leota managed to ground the ball against the base of a post after Andrei Ostrikov had been held up short. Cipriani converted that and added three penalties either side of the break to put his team in control. 

As impressive as his kicking was Cipriani (centre) was all over the pitch and proved defensively solid

Just before the hour, the hosts claimed a second try and it was a gem. From a rolling maul on the right, the impressive Chris Cusiter broke infield and released Tom Arscott. The wing burst into the 22 and was tackled but from the ruck Cipriani's clever delayed pass sent lock Josh Beaumont over the line from close range.

Cipriani added the conversion and Sale stood firm, despite Nathan Hines and Cipriani going to the bin, to ensure Mark Cueto celebrated his 300th game for the club with a win.

Gloucester had plenty of attacking possession but not enough nous and precision. Brendan Macken failed to release Charlie Sharples for a clear run to the line and moments later, when the wing received a pass in space from Jonny May, he was scythed down well by Leota. 

Josh Beaumont crosses the line to score the final try for Sale and put them game beyond Gloucester

Sale's director of rugby Steve Diamond was satisfied but does not believe that his side — currently seventh — are equipped to push for a play-off place despite a favourable run-in. 'We're a good side here,' he said. 'The one area that we didn't have dominance was the scrum. In every other area we were in control of it. I'm really pleased.

'Our first goal is to qualify for the Champions Cup and to do that we have to finish sixth. I think we're probably a bit away from the top four. We can't compete with the super teams. On our day we can beat anyone here but we've got two difficult games away from home.'

Humphreys defended Gloucester's preparations, saying: 'We had a very positive training week but we couldn't translate that into a performance today. We've been back for 48 hours to acclimatise again and we had a good training session yesterday in similar weather conditions to this.'

Tom Arscott slips the tackle of Elliott Stooke of Gloucester during the Aviva Premiership rugby match