Natasha Hunt
England World Cup winning scrum-half on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

Image source, Getty Images

Harlequins have been good, they have been helped out a lot by the referee with the penalties that they have been given but Sale need to sort their discipline out.

Quins have taken their opportunites well and have been sensible with their possession.

Further infringements from Sale as they first don't clear their lines properly and then concede another penalty at the scrum for not driving straight.

Marcus Smith notches over his second successful attempt from a bit further back this time and Quins take a 6-0 lead as we head to a mandatory water break on 20 minutes.

Quins buoyed by that early penalty and they probably should have capitalised further with a try.

Nice move off the back of a line-out involving a reverse pass by Martin Landajo, but the ball falls out the hands of both Joe Marchant and James Lang as they then try and grubber it towards the try line.

Marland Yarde back in time to pick up the scraps and clear for Sale.

Image source, Rex Features

Harlequins win the penalty inside Sale's 22 after a few infringements from the visitors after an attacking line-out breaks down.

Marcus Smith lines it up on his right boot just to the right of the posts and we're off and running with our first points of restart.

Image source, Getty Images

Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond is a hard man to read at the best of times, let alone when he's wearing a face mask.

Not sure if he'll be delighted or disappointed with these opening exchanges and how his side have dealt with them.

Frantic and disjointed at times.

Joe Marchant shows his skills with the boot as he launches a clearance kick from the halfway line and with a nice bounce, it finds touch just inside Sale's 22.

Quins not quite able to find some free running space with ball in hand.

Natasha Hunt
England World Cup winning scrum-half on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

When the balls are new and they haven't been kicked in or haven't been played with a lot, they get this grease on that makes it really difficult to catch, so both sides will probably experience that.

Image source, Rex Features

Hesitant start still to this one as Sale show us a glimpse of the class they have coming forward in that back line, but then an error creeps in with a sloppy pass.

Rob du Preez, Faf du Klerk and Marland Yarde all finding a bit of space to run at the Quins defence before it all gets a bit scrappy.

Image source, Getty Images

Nobody inside The Stoop this evening is exempt from the Covid-19 protocols.

England head coach Eddie Jones had to make sure he passed all the safety checks before being allowed in earlier.

Sloppy start from Sale after winning that early penalty.

Line-out off target from Akker van der Merwe and then Byron McGuigan dropped what seemed like an easy pass out wide to him on the right for a knock-on.

Quins then win a scrum penalty in their own half as the Sale pack get penalised.

Here comes some rain as well to make handling interesting.

First penalty conceded by Quins as Nathan Earle fails to release around 15 metres inside his own half.

A sign of things to come in this new era?

Just before kick-off, all the Harlequins players took a knee while a few from Sale did the same while the rest of the team gathered around in a huddle.

Quins kick us off and Premiership rugby is officially back.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

And we're almost ready to get going...

Sale step out from the opposite end of the ground from the Quins players in a change to usual procedure.

As the two sets of players make their way out on to the turf, referee Luke Pearce blows his whistle to start a minute's silence.

All Premiership clubs will show support for the Black Lives Matter movement when the season resumes this evening, although not all will take a knee before kick-off.

Harlequins, Leicester and Wasps have committed to kneeling, an action synonymous with the cause.

Bristol Bears, Northampton, Gloucester and Bath will show solidarity by having players unite in varying ways on the pitch before kick-off.

Other clubs, including Saracens, will wear shirts with anti-racism messaging.

They'll also be a separate tribute before all of the matches in this round.

Natasha Hunt
England World Cup winning scrum-half on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

Everyday when you go into training you have to fill out a COVID form, have your temparature taken, sanitise the ball and your hands every 15 minutes so there are so many measures in place to make this as safe as possible.

The medical professionals have been working so hard which is why it has taken rugby so long to come back.

Chris Jones
BBC rugby union correspondent on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

From day one the message from the Premiership was get this season done, my take on it was you are compromising two seasons here when you can only end up compromising one and that would be the current 2019-20 season.

If you knock this one on the head then you can start the new one and drip fans in when it's safe to do so and not have it all crammed in and congested.

We've got the most unbelievably relentless schedule coming up and two seasons are going to be compromised because of it.

That's what I think would have been the better option, I understand the financial reasons are at play, I just don't buy it when the Premiership say they're finishing this season for the 'integrity of the competition'.

Image source, BBC Sport

As we've seen with other sports in recent months, Premiership Rugby will resume this evening with matches being played behind closed doors and without spectators for the time being anyhow.

There's still nine rounds of the 2019-20 regular season to complete and that's before we even get to the play-offs with the Premiership final earmarked for the end of October.

"It’s been very difficult to get our sport back on its feet, because of the nuances of how much contact there is," Harlequins chief executive Laurie Dalrymple told BBC Radio 5 live earlier.

"All of the clubs and all of the medical teams and Premiership Rugby and the RFU and the RPA should be commended because what we’ve achieved now to get our sport back in the current environment has been, in my view, excellent."

Image source, BBC Sport

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra

Image source, BBC Sport

We've got every kick ruck and maul of this evening's fixture covered for you on both national and BBC local radio.

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra has full live commentary and build-up from The Stoop - with Chris Jones and former England Women scrum-half Natasha Hunt - on both DAB Digital Radio and the BBC Sport website and app.

At the top of this page, we've also got coverage from BBC Radio London available when you search through the live coverage options.

Image source, Rex Features

Sale have a big-name debutant of their own in Manu Tuilagi, who agreed a move to Greater Manchester following the end of his contract at Leicester in July.

He is paired in the midfield with another new face in Sam Hill. Former Quins player Marland Yarde is on the blindside wing.

Added to that is World Cup-winner Lood de Jager as the South Africa lock makes his first Sale start having fully recovered from the shoulder injury which delayed his Sharks debut.

Sale: Hammersley; McGuigan, Tuilagi, Hill, Yarde; R du Preez, De Klerk; Oosthuizen, Van der Merwe, John, J-L du Preez, De Jager, Ross (capt), T Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Langdon, Harrison, Cooper-Wooley, Phillips, B Curry, Cliff, MacGinty, Solomona.

Image source, Rex Features

Hosts Harlequins hand a club debut to winger Chris Ashton, against the club he left in Febraury to move to south-west London just a few days before lockdown began.

England international full-back Mike Brown will also join him in the back line to pull on a Quins shirt for the first time since April 2019.

Another player returning from injury is winger Nathan Earle while centre Joe Marchant is back after he joined Super Rugby's Auckland Blues on loan earlier in the season.

Chris Robshaw skippers the side having agreed a short-term extension to his time at The Stoop before he heads off to pastures new in San Diego at the end of this delayed season.

Harlequins: Brown; Ashton, Marchant, Lang, Earle; Smith, Landajo; Marler, Baldwin, Kerrod, Lewies, Symons, Chisholm, Robshaw (capt), Dombrandt.

Replacements: Gray, Garcia Botta, Collier, Lamb, Lawday, Evans, Steele, Lasike.