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Last-16 second leg: Bristol 29-35 SaleSharks into quarter-finals after 44-39 aggregate triumph
Sale hit hard, hit often, and occasionally hit high. Their reward, having soaked up the self-inflicted damage caused by one red card and two yellows, is progress to the last eight of the Champions Cup. Arron Reed was sent off in the first half, Faf de Klerk and Nick Schonert were shown yellow cards either side of half-time, but the Sharks’ physicality and a late try by the captain, Jono Ross, proved enough to edge them past Bristol.
An opening flurry of box kicking had suggested both teams would opt to eliminate risk as far as possible, but Sale’s scrummaging strength – combined with the incessant prompting of De Klerk – began to punch holes in Bristol’s defence. The Springboks scrum-half, rumoured to be heading for Japan when he leaves Sale in the summer, stole down the blindside with an opportunistic run before the Sharks hooker Akker van der Merwe sprinted on to kick ahead, straight down the middle, only to be kept out by some desperate Bristol defending.
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