Sale breeze past Quins
Harlequins missed the chance to go back to the top of the Guinness Premiership after a 28-6 defeat to Sale on Friday night.
Last Updated: 18/04/09 4:47pm
Harlequins missed the chance to go back to the top of the Guinness Premiership after a 28-6 defeat to Sale on Friday night.
The home side notched four tries, the first a penalty-try, to record their eighth home victory in nine games and dent Quins' play-off push in the process.
Sebastien Chabal marked his return to action with a crucial second-half try and Rudi Keil and Richard Wigglesworth also crossed in the second half to condemn Dean Richards' men to their second defeat in the space of five days.
The win also seals Sale's place in next season's Heineken Cup and Kingsley Jones' men must now beat Northampton at home next Saturday to stand any chance of finishing in the top four.
Promising
Sale had the first opportunity to open the scoring inside the second minute but spurned it when fly-half Charlie Hodgson screwed a penalty wide of the posts from distance.
Four minutes later, Waisea Luveniyali missed a penalty for the visitors but it was Harlequins who began to gain the ascendancy following the sin-binning of Sale wing Oriol Ripol in the 13th minute for persistent infringement.
They led when Luveniyali converted a 17th-minute penalty and threatened to run right through Sale in a series of promising moves.
Sale offered little going forward but almost managed to engineer an opening down the left flank when Andy Tuilagi found Mathew Tait bursting forward at pace.
Tait's neat short offload was collected by David Doherty but his progress was checked and the momentum remained largely in Harlequins' favour.
The game began to warm up as the first half wore on and in the 34th minute Harlequins' Mike Ross was sin-binned for persistent infringement following a series of broken scrums.
Stunned
A penalty try was eventually awarded to Sale in the 36th minute and Luveniyali failed to reduce the arrears on the stroke of half-time when he sent a penalty wide of the posts.
The momentum remained with Sale after the break and within two minutes of the restart they claimed their second try when Chabal burrowed his way over from close range.
Hodgson converted and Sale continued to press forward their advantage, despite Gomarsall's penalty on the hour mark keeping the visitors in contention.
They were rewarded in the 63rd minute when Keil collected possession and showed impressive pace to burst clear of a stunned Harlequins rearguard to touch down.
Hodgson again added the extras to put Sale 21-6 ahead and then Wigglesworth added a fourth score when he took Ripol's pass and touched down in the closing stages for a try which Hodgson again converted.
