Sharks ready to battle for victory

SANDERSON: TOUGH TEST TO END WINLESS RUN

- BRENDAN MCGILLIGAN

SALE Sharks are intent on ending their winless run of four games when they travel to Kingsholm Stadium to face Gloucester in the Premiership.

Gloucester won their last two games courtesy of the European Challenge Cup, but are winless in their last nine Premiership games.

However, Sale's director of rugby Alex Sanderson is not taking the task of playing the team sitting 9th in the Premiership lightly.

He said: "We will expect a real physical battle. They are a good team, and they have just had a couple of wins on the bounce.

"You can look at their games and look at ours and see some correlation with the fact that the games they have lost, they've lost by three or four points and are pushing teams real close."

Sale will, however, feel like the experience of holding their own against the current Champions Cup champions, La Rochelle, has prepared them for this final Premiership game before the break for the Six Nations.

Sanderson believed there were a lot of positives to take out of their 37-24 defeat as the French side ended Sale's Champions Cup campaign.