Sarries smash sorry Sharks

Saracens rounded out their LV= Cup campaign with a 50-7 mauling of Sale at Vicarage Road.

Chris Wyles helped himself to a hat-trick as Sarries ran in eight tries against their Aviva Premiership rivals, although the result came too late to help them progress in the competition.

Newport Gwent Dragons' win over Llanelli Scarlets earlier on Sunday ended the London club's hopes of reaching the last four.

However they signed off in style with an avalanche of points against a team containing Charlie Hodgson, who has already agreed to join them next season.

Caught cold

Saracens - who handed prop Matt Stevens a first start - caught the visitors cold, scoring a well-worked try before two minutes had been played.

The attack, launched towards the right, was switched cleverly by Owen Farrell, allowing Wyles to go in on the left for his first of the afternoon.

The United States international added a second on the same flank just four minutes later, although Farrell was unable to add either conversion attempt from out wide.

Sale briefly threatened to make a game of it when centre Iain Thornley managed to offload the ball for full-back Nick Macleod to score under the posts.

Fly-half Hodgson added the extras to cut the gap to just three points, though that would be as close as the Sharks would get to their opponents.

Flanker Jackson Wray was driven over Sale's line to get a third home try and a fourth came in similar fashion just after the midway point of the first half, hooker Jamie George the man to benefit from the pack's hard work.

Farrell again couldn't succeed with either conversion attempt, the second of which looked spot-on until it hit the right-hand post and stayed out.

The teenage fly-half handed over kicking duties to Alex Goode, who slotted over a 33rd-minute penalty and then added a further three points before the break when Sale were again penalised by referee Leighton Hodges.

The break did not spare the visitors from further punishment though; Wyles completed his treble just five minutes after the re-start, beating opposite number Rhys Crane in a straight sprint to collect his own kick.

Late flurry

Back Hilary Staff came off the bench to make his Saracens debut in a wave of changes that broke up the free-flowing nature of the game.

But a flurry of points in the final 10 minutes saw the home side bring up their half-century, starting with skipper Ernst Joubert smashing his way between two defenders to reach the line.

Goode, who had switched to No.10 after Farrell had gone off, knocked over the conversion and was also able to add the extras after Justin Melck had the legs to get outside the cover defence following a charged down kick.

Rodd Penney, who recently returned to Sarries after a brief spell playing for Aironi, completed the scoring when he raced in at the right corner.