Exiles Sale to home win

Sale conceded a try for the first time this year as London Irish ended the visitors' perfect record with a 28-6 win at the Madejski Stadium.

Having done the double over their opponents last season the Exiles maintained their dominance over the Sharks, crossing four times to pick up a bonus point.

It was Richard Thorpe's effort two minutes before half time that saw Sale's defences finally breached after they had managed a Guinness Premiership record 357-minute run without allowing their opponents to score.

With the floodgates open the home side added a further three tries after the break through Peter Hewat, Alex Corbisiero and Sailosi Tagicakibau.

Tightly-contested

All the Sharks had to show for their efforts were two penalties from the boot of Charlie Hodgson, both kicks coming in a tightly-contested first 40 minutes.

It took until 17 minutes for either team to break the deadlock, Hewat - playing at fly-half rather than his usual position of full-back - slotting over a penalty attempt.

Sale did their best to try and find a way through at the other end but each time they threatened to reach the line they were stopped in their tracks, not always by their opponents.

They did at least draw level thanks to the smart thinking of Dwayne Peel, the scrum-half taking a quick tap penalty and forcing Irish to concede a penalty in front of their own posts.

Hewat replied with a well-struck drop goal before Sale saw Chris Bell yellow-carded following Delon Armitage's surge down the right.

With a man extra the Exiles finally found a way through, Thorpe running right through from the short side to end the Sharks' impressive defensive feat.

Accurate boot

Although Hodgson reduced the deficit to five points on the stroke of half time, Irish pinned their rivals in deep via Hewat's accurate boot.

The Australian got the second try when he went over in the left corner before England Under 20 prop Corbisiero plunged over the line after a run by Seilala Mapusua - previously the last man to score against Sale back in May.

The Sharks' miserable night was summed up when Neil Briggs dropped the ball over the line after a superb 40-yard break from Peel and they suffered another blow before the final whistle.

Tagicakibau burst through some tired tackles to touch down in the corner and round off a fine team performance from Toby Booth's team.