STEVE Diamond is hoping a fortnight's rest cure will help reignite the Sharks' assault on securing a second successive top six Premiership berth.

Two defeats against Leicester Tigers and Bath have seen Sale fall to seventh place in the table, leaving Diamond's troops five points adrift of sixth-placed Wasps.

With the league now going into temporary hibernation due to the LV= Cup, Sale now do not have a game until they entertain Gloucester on Sunday, March 29.

The director of rugby has given his players the week off and he believes that temporary break will help refresh their tired limbs and scrambled minds.

"We would have liked a losing bonus point from Friday but we are still knocking around the top half of the league and we will give all of the sides a run for their money between now and the end of the season," he said.

"It's a well-earned rest – we've been going nine months with no break so the lads can have a week's rest and then we can look to crack on once again.

"If you look at it, we've had Saracens, Leicester and now Bath so we've played three hard games in quick succession.

"We are where we are with it and the rest has probably come at the right time.

"We'll regroup and get our backsides into gear for Gloucester.

"There will be a lot more twists and turns and in this league everybody can knock each other about.

"There is no doubt that the Gloucester game is going to be very big game for us.

"Looking at our remaining games, we've got a good run ahead of us where we've got to pick points up."

Both Bath and Sale went into Friday's encounter in poor form, but it was the home side that ended a run of three consecutive defeats to finish fourth in the table following the weekend's fixtures.

A tight game short on expansive rugby was settled by the boot, with Bath's Tom Homer kicking four penalties to Danny Cipriani's one for the Sharks.

Bath deserved their win, their first in the league since beating Wasps on 10 January, but it was an attritional contest in which both teams struggled to seriously threaten the opposition's try line with any regularity.

Diamond added: "There was a lot of hard work and a great defensive effort, and not to get a bonus point is disappointing.

"We were pretty equal out there for long periods of time – we just lost a bit of composure in attack.

"We are tired. We have a small squad, so everyone plays 80 minutes. We have just come to the end of four hard games, and it showed.

"In attack, we were just off the pace a little bit, but the endeavour was fantastic."