Returning England trio help Sale snap losing run against Quins

Sale emphatically ended a run of four straight Prem Rugby defeats by thumping fellow strugglers Harlequins 43-17 in a bonus-point win at the CorpAcq Stadium in Salford.

Alex Sanderson’s Sharks were hammered at Northampton in the last of those four losses eight days ago but they finally returned to winning ways and condemned Quins to a huge defeat.

The Londoners have now lost six of their eight league games this season and their play-off hopes are already beginning to fade, but this victory reignited Sale’s prospects of a top-four finish.

Harlequins led 17-12 at the break through tries from Marcus Smith and Jack Walker but Sale, who scored through Alex Wills and Luke Cowan-Dickie in the first half, ran riot in the second half.

Jacques Vermeulen scored twice in quick succession to seal the bonus point and Rekeiti Ma’asi-White, Raffi Quirke and Nathan Jibulu also touched down as Sale ran in 31 unanswered second-half points.

England internationals George Ford, Bevan Rodd and Joe Carpenter returned to Sale’s line-up as Sanderson made five changes to his team following last week’s 47-21 loss away to Saints.

James Harper and Hyron Andrews also came back into the XV to bolster a pack that featured Tom Curry at number eight.

Quins, meanwhile, had been hammered 40-14 against Bristol Bears at the Allianz Stadium, Twickenham last weekend.

But they caught Sale cold by forging ahead early on when, after winger Rodrigo Isgro was denied in the right corner, Smith collected possession and dived over from close range in the second minute.

Smith converted his own try but Sale responded strongly and got off the mark with a well-worked try by Wills in the eighth minute. After good work from Ford, Rob du Preez threw a fine pass out to Wills and he crossed in the left corner.

Ford missed the conversion and Smith then kicked a penalty for Quins before Sale scored their second try when Cowan-Dickie crashed over from close range.

This time Ford converted to put Sale 12-10 ahead but Walker went over from a line-out to score on the stroke of half-time for Quins and Smith’s conversion made it 17-12 at the break.

The second half was one-way traffic as flanker Vermeulen took centre stage with two finishes within the space of eight minutes in the third quarter of the match.

That secured the bonus point and Ma’asi-White finished off some delightful handling for their fifth before scrum-half Raffi Quirke pounced on a mistake to score Sale’s sixth.

There was still time for replacement hooker Jibulu to crash over from close range as Sale celebrated returning to winning ways in style.

For Sale, Ford and Du Preez claimed two conversions apiece and for Harlequins Smith registered two conversions and a penalty.