Ryan delighted with debutant Spencer

Spencer, who joined the Cherry and Whites last week from Northampton, was thrust straight into the thick of it and Ryan felt he fitted in superbly alongside former England centre Olly Barkley.

Ryan said: "I was really pleased with Carlos and Barks and the relationship that is growing off that."

He added: "Carlos has looked sharp for a week, I would not have played him otherwise. He has come in deliberately just to change the dynamics and he has done that.

"At the same time, he has lifted people which fits quite neatly into what we are trying to do.

"There are elements that we will talk about on Monday and things he could have done better but we will also show the seven or eight things that he brings to us. It is an understanding because his brain works at a million miles an hour."

Sale head coach Kingsley Jones, a former skipper at Gloucester, admitted: "It's a game we certainly could have won and there are not many teams who can come to Kingsholm and say that.

"We needed to play it for more than 30 minutes. In the second half, we simply made too many errors. We have played what is put in front of us."

And it did not help Sale that Lee Thomas plus replacement lock Brent Cockbain were sin-binned, although Jones thought the yellow card for his former Wales second row was harsh.

"It was a game of two halves and we lost our composure and discipline at times. We fell off a couple of tackles in the game which I'm disappointed about, but there we go."