Bristol Bears beat Sale Sharks 34-24 to start Premiership campaign at CorpAcq Stadium
Bristol Bears began their Premiership campaign with a 34-24, bonus-point victory over Sale Sharks at the CorpAcq Stadium on 26 September 2026. The visitors scored five tries and secured the bonus point, while Sale registered three tries but missed out on either of the bonus-point markers.
Sale and Bristol had both been losing semi-finalists in the Premiership in 2025 but failed to finish in the top four last season. Bristol named no newcomers in their starting XV and relied on continuity, running in five tries including two apiece from Louis Rees-Zammit and Harry Randall and a 73rd-minute score from replacement hooker Tomas Gwilliam. Sale arrived having lost 13 Premiership games last term and with a losing home record at CorpAcq Stadium.
The scoring summary listed Cowan-Dickie and Tom O'Flaherty (two) among Sale's tries, with George Ford kicking three conversions and one penalty; Bristol's tries came from Rees-Zammit (two), Randall (two) and Gwilliam, with James Williams adding three conversions and one penalty. That scoring breakdown produced the 34-24 final score in Bristol's favour.
The match opened with a missed early penalty by Bristol fly-half MacGinty, whose attempt fell well wide, and Sale then took the lead through Luke Cowan-Dickie. Bristol appeared to respond when Rees-Zammit took a quick lineout finish that was ruled out because O'Flaherty had not touched the ball, but Rees-Zammit scored moments later from a floated pass by James Williams. George Ford's penalty had put Sale five points clear before Rees-Zammit's acrobatic second try brought Bristol level; Williams' penalty and Randall's sniping break before half-time gave Bristol a 10-point advantage at the interval.
In the second half O'Flaherty finished quickly to narrow the gap, but Randall crossed again to extend Bristol's lead. A break by Elia Canakaivata on his Premiership debut opened play and ultimately allowed O'Flaherty to score, making it a three-point game with about 10 minutes remaining. Bristol's forwards then powered a driving maul to the line for Gwilliam's try in the 73rd minute, and when Ford missed a penalty in the 79th minute Sale's chance of earning a losing bonus point evaporated.
The match carried wider squad and injury context: Bristol had been hampered by a raft of injuries last season but were one place, and 18 points, above Sale in the final table in June; their new signing from Bath, Ethan Staddon, suffered an ACL while MacGinty had missed most of last season with a severe Achilles injury before returning for this game. Sale have brought back Courtney Lawes and Joe Marchant from France as part of Alex Sanderson's squad, while Pat Lam reported that having a number of senior players back at his disposal had provided freshness akin to that of new signings.
Sale named Carpenter; O'Flaherty, Marchant, Ma'asi-White, Reed; Ford, Roe; Rodd, Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, van Rhyn (capt), Bamber, Lawes, T Curry, Vermuelen, with replacements Jibulu, Smith, Francis, Tshiunza, Dugdale, Warr, Lozowski, Canakaviata. Bristol started Jordan; Rees-Zammit, Janse van Rensburg, Williams, Ibitoye; MacGinty, Randall; Genge, Oghre, Kloska, Rubiolo, Batley, Owen, Ivanishvili, Harding (capt), and used replacements Gwilliam, Woolmore, Halliwell, Taylor, Luatua, Marmion, Pepper, Grondona.
Bristol leave with a maximum of five points from the fixture after claiming the bonus point; Sale returned from CorpAcq Stadium without a bonus point and were denied a late chance to secure a losing bonus when Ford missed in the 79th minute.