Sale Sharks too good for London Irish

Sale Sharks earned a comfortable 15-30 Aviva Premiership victory over London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

The victory keeps Sale’s hopes of achieving a top six place alive as they move to seventh place.

The home side remain at the bottom of the Premiership table after being outplayed by Sale, the boot of Cipriani being the notable difference between the two sides.

Irish started this one slowly, with Cipriani firing Sale ahead after six minutes. Greig Tonks levelled three minutes later with a relatively easy conversion.

Coming after the Irish kicker missed an effort at the posts, a well worked move saw the ball end up in the hands of Sean Maitland who touched over the line.

Cipriani made Tonks pay for his earlier misses with his second penalty of the afternoon, coming after the hosts failed to roll away.

The hosts thought they had further enhanced their lead when going over, but celebrations were cut short when a forward pass was given. Tonks had yet another chance to get Sale into double figures, but for the third time he flashed an effort wide of the posts.

Sale equalised the try scoring and took the lead for themselves minutes before the break. Mike Haley went over for the visitors first score after an overlap was created. Cipriani converted and the Sharks went into the break with a 13-8 lead.

Irish were under the cosh for the first ten minutes of the second half but defended superbly to halt a Sale try. Cipriani continued to help Sale tick along and added another penalty to make the score16-8.

However big finish was on the cards when the home side reduced Sale’s lead to just one point. Williams went over for the try with Tonks adding the extras that took the scoreboard to 16-15.

Replacement number eight TJ Ioane’s try restored a healthy lead, Cipriani made no mistake with the conversion. The fly-half went over for the final score of the match, converting his own try to take the final score to 15-30.

Final Score London Irish 15 (8) Sale Sharks 30 (13)

Scorers

London Irish
Tries – Maitland, Williams
Pen – Tonks
Con – Tonks
Drop –

Sale Sharks
Tries – Haley, Ioane, Cipriani
Pen – Cipriani (3)
Con – Cipriani (3)
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee : Craig Maxwell-Keys (16th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Roger Baileff & Roy Maybank.
TMO: Sean Davey

Teams

London Irish

15 Sean Maitland, 14 Tom Fowlie, 13 Ciaran Hearn, 12 Johnny Williams, 11 Andrew Fenby, 10 Greig Tonks, 9 Scott Steele, 1 Tom Court, 2 David Paice, 3 Halani Aulika, 4 Jebb Sinclair, 5 Matt Symons, 6 Luke Narraway (c), 7 Blair Cowan, 8 Ofisa Treviranus
Replacements: 16 Tom Cruse, 17 Tom Smallbone, 18 Leo Halavatau, 19 Jerry Sexton, 20 Rob McCusker, 21 Brendan McKibbin, 22 Theo Brophy Clews, 23 Fergus Mulchrone

Sale Sharks

15. Mike Haley, 14. Will Addison, 13. Sam James, 12. Sam Tuitupou, 11. Nev Edwards, 10. Danny Cipriani, 9. Peter Stringer, 1. Eifion Lewis Roberts, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Brian Mujati, 4. Bryn Evans, 5. Andrei Ostrikov, 6. Cameron Neild, 7. David Seymour (c), 8. Mark Easter

Replacements: 16. Neil Briggs, 17. Ross Harrison, 18. Vadim Cobilas, 19. Jonathan Mills, 20. Magnus Lund, 21. TJ Ioane, 22. Joe Ford, 23. Tom Brady.