Petrie the centurion ends Sale's dream of quarter-final place

Glasgow 26 Sale 14

Sale's European odyssey almost certainly came to an end at Hughenden last night, as they stumbled to a second successive defeat in Pool Three and a place in the quarter-finals is but a distant memory. They could find no fluency or continuous control faced by determined, if limited opponents.

Too often Sale were pulled out of shape, while their wide runners were rarely allowed the space to do the sort of damage which ordinarily comes as second nature to Mark Cueto and Steve Hanley. They were finished off by a celebratory try from Jon Petrie, playing his 100th game for Glasgow.

Sale made four changes from the side that lost to Burgoin last week, bringing in Wallaby Graeme Bond at centre for his debut, shuffling the pack, to allow Apollo Perelini his first start of the season. But of their absentees, the most significant were Charlie Hodgson – still not recovered from a dead leg – and Jason Robinson, who returned home in mid-afternoon to be with his wife Amanda, who went into labour with their third child.

Glasgow's only notable changes from the side beaten heavily at Llanelli, was the return of Calvin Howarth at outside-half, enabling Tommy Hayes to move into the centre.

While Sale made the brightest of starts, with a smartly-taken try from Stuart Pinkerton and a long penalty by Nick Walshe, it was not long before the mistakes were flowing faster than the Clyde.

The Andrews, Hall and Wilson were the pick of the home front-five, whose driving play was exemplary while Glasgow's captain, Jason White led by example, especially at the line-out where Sale were frequently in disarray. They were all over the place when Pinkerton missed a first tackle. White needed no second invitation to stride to the posts for a try that looked on from the first ruck that led to it.

The wonder was that the Scots had not crossed the line more than once. Had their backs played with the assurance of their forwards, the game would have been up for Sale who continued to fumble and fritter their possession away.

Making the most of the chances that came his way was Tommy Hayes, who converted White's try, before banging over three unanswered penalties to give Glasgow a 16-8 advantage at the break. Hayes then made a perfect start to the second half with a 28-metre penalty.

There was no lack of effort on the part of the Sharks forwards, but they spent far too much time on the back foot and were finally blown away by the Glasgow pack who set up the position for Petrie's killer try. Hayes, almost inevitably converted, to keep Glasgow's dream of a first Heineken Cup quarter-final place alive.

Glasgow: Tries White, Petrie; Conversions Hayes 2; Penalties Hayes 4. Sale: Tries Pinkerton; Penalties Walshe 3.

Glasgow: S Moffat; M Bartlett, A Bulloch, T Hayes, G Metcalfe; C Howarth (A Henderson, 51), G Beveridge; C Blades (D Hilton, 60), G Bulloch, L Harrison, A Hall (N Ross, 80), J White (capt), A Wilson (R McKay, 46), D Macfadyen, J Petrie.

Sale: V Going; M Cueto, M Deane (D Harris, 66), G Bond, S Hanley; N Walshe, B Redpath (capt); J Thorp (K Yates, 53), C Marais (A Titterrell, 53), B Stewart, C Jones, D Scofield, A Perelini (R Wilks, 66), S Pinkerton, P Anglesea.

Referee: D Mené (France).