Premiership Women's Rugby: Gloucester-Hartpury go top with convincing win over Sale Sharks to continue 100% record

Gloucester-Hartpury moved top of the Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby table with a 29-3 trouncing of Sale Sharks.

The result maintains their 100% winning record after 10 games, while Sale stay rooted the bottom after a ninth defeat from the same number of matches.

Beatrice Rigoni opened the scoring with only six minutes on the clock through an early penalty, but the hosts' response was impressive.

After powering their way through the Sale scrum, Sarah Beckett reacted quickest to the loose ball and touched down for Gloucester to 5-3 in front.

Lleucu George just missed with the subsequent conversion, but Gloucester were soon on the warpath again and increased their lead through Kathryn Buggy.

After a successful scrum, Cath Richards latched onto the ball out wide and played in Buggy to plough her way over the try line from close range.

Kelsey Jones then exploited a huge gap in the Sale defence and managed to pick out Steph Else, who surged her way through to the try line and move Gloucester 15-3 in front before George added two extra points from the conversion.

Else was forced to withdraw from the match on the hour mark through injury, but Sean Lynn's side remained undeterred and increased their stranglehold on proceedings.

Alex Matthews made almost an immediate impact after entering the pitch to increase Gloucester's lead to 22-3, with George successful through another conversion.

The bonus point was secured thanks to Kelsey Jones, who utilised her position at the back of the line out and crossed the line to round off a comprehensive win.

The two sides will do battle again when Gloucester travel up to Sale for the reverse fixture on February 25.

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