Saturday 16 February 2019 18:27, UK
Northampton ran in nine tries to hammer Sale 67-17, while Saracens beat Leicester to return to the top of the Premiership table.
Northampton ran in nine tries to hammer Sale 67-17, but fly-half Dan Biggar handed Wales an injury scare ahead of their crunch Six Nations clash with England.
Biggar limped from the field after 20 minutes with his knee heavily strapped, but it failed to stop his Saints side from scoring four points to bring up the bonus point before the break.
A double from Cobus Reinach and efforts from Tom Wood and substitute Tom Collins put the hosts in total control of the Gallagher Premiership match against a poor Sale side who never got started.
In the second period further home tries came from Ahsee Tuala, Taqele Naiyaravoro, George Furbank, Rory Hutchinson and a second from Collins.
Sale scored through a penalty try and Denny Solomona, but they were well beaten as they conceded the most points in their Premiership history.
Saracens eventually ground down a combative Leicester Tigers side 33-10 to move back to the top of the Premiership following Exeter's defeat at Gloucester on Friday night.
Tries from Richard Wigglesworth, replacement hooker Tom Woolstencroft, Ben Spencer and David Strettle were the key ingredients in Saracens' 16th straight home win on the bounce in all competitions.
Leicester - the last side to beat the current champions at Allianz Park almost a year ago - led at half-time but were suffocated by a hugely professional second half from the men in black.
Bath made hard work of their bonus-point victory over Newcastle, who now trail fellow strugglers Worcester by five points at the bottom of the Premiership.
The home side climbed two places into the top six with the 30-13 success and will be happy that England wing Joe Cokanasiga scored one of four home tries on his comeback from a knee ligament injury.
Falcons defeated Bath 16-8 at Kingston Park back in Round 8 but an efficient performance in the West Country means the hosts have now lost just one of their last five Premiership Rugby games.
Conversely, Newcastle have lost nine of their last ten matches in all competitions and conceded three first-half tries to Semesa Rokoduguni, Cokanasiga and Will Chudley before Francois Louw secured the try bonus late on.
A try from Nemani Nagusa and the boot of Toby Flood kept Falcons in the contest for a while but the 30-13 triumph was no less than Bath deserved for what was at times a dominant display.
Harlequins produced a ruthless display of attacking rugby as they ran in seven tries against Worcester to triumph 47-33 in a thrilling Premiership clash at The Stoop.
The hosts were on the scoreboard after less than a minute. Danny Care's box kick inside the Warriors 22 evaded the back-peddling Bryce Heem and bounced kindly to Gabriel Ibitoye, who offloaded to Joe Marchant to thunder over the line.
They doubled their lead moments later in an almost carbon copy of their first. Marcus Smith's kick over the top bounced into the hands of Jack Clifford, and his quick offload found Ibitoye who raced towards the line and touched down under the posts. Mike Brown, Jack Clifford, Care, Ben Tapuai and James Lang also went over to give them a comfortable win over the Warriors.
