Following Bath’s 36-28 win over Sale Sharks at the Recreation Ground, here are our five takeaways from a scrappy Gallagher PREM clash on Saturday.

The top line

Bath exorcised the ghost of their attacking nightmare at Gloucester to beat Sale, return to the top four and head into a month-long international break with the spring back in their step.

Eight days after spending a Friday night in the opposition 22 at Kingsholm and managing just a solitary try against a team at times down to 13, Johann van Graan’s side scored five against a Sharks side dropping to within a point of the foot of the PREM table.

The impressive Joe Cokanasiga bagged a brace and there were tries, too, for fellow backs Henry Arundell, player of the match Tom de Glanville and Louie Hennessy.

Sale had the consolation of a bonus point, claimed in the dying seconds when Elia Canakaivata added to earlier tries by Nathan Jibulu, Tom O’Flaherty and Luke Cowan-Dickie.

Not that Alex Sanderson, Sharks director of rugby, was mollified by that. His face was a picture of frustration at the final whistle.

De Glanville steps up in Santi’s absence

It is hard to believe there was anything more upsetting for Bath at Gloucester than the chocolate hammer that was their attack. But Santi Carreras’ season-ending ruptured ACL left player and Van Graan devastated.

Step forward De Glanville to fill the number 15 jersey and respond with a oh-so-classy player of the match performance, featuring try and try assist.

De Glanville had himself nursed an Achilles injury prior to his return to colours and his display gave the club an enormous lift at exactly when they needed it most.

“He looked very sharp out wide,” said Austin Healey, who awarded the 26-year old the MVP award. “His control at the back was excellent, his attacking play, his creating for his own try and for Cokanasiga’s second try was top notch.”

De Glanville scored Bath’s second try on 22 minutes and soon after bamboozled Joe Carpenter and Alex Lozowski to turn a 2 on 2 into an overlap for Cokanasiga to exploit.

“Defensively the boys were up for this week,” said the son of former England captain Phil. “We built our performance off that, turnover ball. It’s always nice as a back-three to profit off the work some of the boys do up front.

“I think we’re probably not where we want to be still – there’s definitely loads to work on still – but we showed for a lot more of that game than we have done, where we want to go.”

Where are the Sharks that won at Saracens?

When Sale won at Saracens in round two it felt like a win which had the potential to light the blue touch paper on their campaign. Humiliated home and away by the Londoners last season, they went to their gaff and ransacked the place.

What followed therefore has been disappointing to say the very least. Shipping 47 points at home to Glasgow in Europe then losing to Newcastle and failing to score a try against opponents who had long forgotten how to win.

Team boss Sanderson spoke of “frustrations that led to anger at not stacking up to our own expectations” as a team who had averaged 29 points a game in all competitions prior to going to Kingston Park, suddenly became toothless.

What then should Sanderson make of this? Yes they scored four tries but they averaged less than two points per visit to the Bath 22. Attack coach Joe Ford admitted the home team had “spooked them” with their defensive line speed, but that won’t douse the fire raging inside his boss.

“The big rocks are there, it’s small things that are detracting from massive effort,” he told TNT Sports. “And it comes back down to how clinical we are and our ability to convert and keep the ball in the right areas of the field.

“‘Cause we’re getting down there and we’re making pretty good decisions around the middle of the park. But if we want to compete, if we want to be up there at the back end of the season, we have to finish our opportunities against the best teams. And we didn’t today. Again.”

Russell gets one over on Ford after Kingsholm mockery

A week ago Finn Russell failed to contribute a point in a Bath jersey for the first time in two and a half years. He was mocked by The Shed at Gloucester, subjected to ‘Eeyore’ chants as the Blue, Black and Whites were humbled by their high-flying neighbours.

Bath needed him to give a strong response today, as frankly did the player himself before going into Scotland camp for a month of Nations Championship matches.

Russell was far from flawless. He still looks some way off his best and Bath are still inefficient in their chance-taking given the volume they create. But he at least had them playing with more width and ambition. They were more recognisable as the champion team they were not that long ago.

Up against George Ford, Russell had the first and last laugh. In the first half he put a shoulder into the ball-carrying England fly-half and then added insult by dropping the ball onto his head in a provocative fashion which sparked an all-in melée.

Ford is way too professional to ever get involved in such nonsense and ended the day with maximum points from his kicks at goal, but it was Russell got the W.

From the second minute, when his pin-point diagonal so nearly put Arundell over, he stretched the Sale defence east and west. He missed a sitter of a penalty early on but bounced back to fix the Sale rearguard and make room for Cokanasiga’s first try – then kick perfectly for the big wing to collect and bag his second.

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Best of all, the smile was back on his face. For a team winless in three and mourning the long-term losses of Carreras and Guy Pepper, his ability to lighten the mood was so important.

Arundell’s happy return

Back in the Bath starting line-up for the first time this season, Henry Arundell was lightning quick to make up for lost time on an afternoon in which Bath’s backs accounted for all their tries.

Arundell started the game like a bat out of hell, denied a second minute try only by Tom Curry’s exceptional tap tackle. Seconds later Max Ojomoh worked a hole in the Sale defence and from two metres inside his own half Arundell raced between Lozowski and Joe Marchant and was gone.

For a player sent off and later dropped in last season’s Six Nations and then sidelined by a back injury through the first weeks of this campaign, keeping him out of the England squad, this was a timely reminder that at his best he can be very decent.