Cokanasiga scores twice as Bath beat Sale at the Recreation Ground on 2026-10-31
Joe Cokanasiga scored twice as Bath beat Sale at the Recreation Ground in a Premiership match on 2026-10-31, ending a three-game winless run in all competitions.
Bath had lost their past two Premiership matches and an additional game in the Champions Cup before facing Sale, and their backline has been disrupted by injuries; Santiago Carreras is ruled out for the rest of the campaign while Tom de Glanville and Henry Arundell returned from injury for this game.
Arundell opened the scoring in less than three minutes of his first Premiership appearance of the season, charging through a gap on halfway and racing into the corner. Sale then enjoyed their best period of pressure but could not convert frequent entries into Bath's 22 into more than one try; prop Asher Opoku-Fordjour was turned over a few metres out and Joe Carpenter dropped a long pass, before Nathan Jibulu carried over from the back of a maul to bring Sale level.
Bath regained the lead when de Glanville dashed through a gap after the hosts switched direction from a line-out, the chance arising when Tom Roebuck slipped attempting a tackle. Cokanasiga finished a well-worked team try that began with Arundell catching a high ball on halfway and the backs moving quickly into a two-on-one with de Glanville.
Cokanasiga scored his second and Bath's bonus-point fourth immediately after the interval, leaping to take Russell's cross-field kick, side-stepping past Alex Lozowski and stretching over under a tackle. Tom O'Flaherty responded for Sale minutes later with a one-handed dive into the corner; later a Russell penalty extended Bath's lead and Louis Hennessey, a minute after coming on, ran on to a Bernard van der Linde grubber kick to all-but seal the win.
Sale finished the game strongly, with Luke Cowan-Dickie barging through and Elia Canakaivata scoring in the final minute, ensuring the Sharks left the Recreation Ground with a losing bonus point; the result was Sale's third loss of the campaign. Bath took the full complement of five competition points from the match.
Scoring summary: Tries: Arundell, De Glanville, Cokanasiga 2, Hennessey. Cons: Russell 4. Pens: Russell. Sale — Tries: Jibulu, O'Flaherty, Cowan-Dickie, Canakaivata. Cons: Ford 4.
Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, Arundell; Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Frost, Griffin, Jeanes, Ewels, Hill, Reid, Bayliss. Replacements: Dunn, Wheeler, Stuart, Opoku-Gyamfi, Richards, Van Der Linde, Hennessey, Coetzee.
Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, Marchant, Lozowski, O'Flaherty; Ford, Warr; Smith, Jibulu, Opoku-Fordjour, Van Rhyn (c), Bamber, Tshiunza, B. Curry, T. Curry. Replacements: Cowan-Dickie, McIntyre, Francis, Burrow, Dugdale, Hanson, Ma'asi-White, Canakaivata.
The victory lifted Bath to fourth place as both sides head into the international break, with Sale positioned eighth in the table.