Premiership: Northampton Saints 25-34 Sale Sharks

Marland Yarde secured Sale's bonus point before half-time

Denny Solomona's first-half hat-trick helped Sale beat Northampton to put their play-off bid back on course.

The England winger now has 10 tries for the season as Sale took all five points to keep in touch with the top four.

Sharks' bonus point was secured before half-time as Marland Yarde collected a kick to score under the posts.

Northampton mounted a second-half comeback with tries from Michael Paterson, Rob Horne and Heinrich Brussow but the task was too great.

Brussow's try was his first for Saints since joining the club in January but merely glossed over another disappointing performance.

Northampton have now lost 11 of their 17 Premiership matches this season, though they still have a comfortable 16-point gap over bottom club London Irish.

Brussow scored from a quick tap-penalty after Horne finished a move begun by Nafi Tuitavake's break and Paterson had dived over from the base of ruck close to the line.

But Saints were always chasing the game after Sale's first-half burst led by Solomona, who was sent over after a five-metre scrum, finished a flourishing counter-attack after Yarde claimed a high ball and then took a fizzing pass from scrum-half Faf de Klerk to stroll in for his third try.

Yarde's bonus-point score came from a Northampton knock-on and ultimately earned Steve Diamond's side an eighth win of the season - and their first at Northampton for 12 years - to keep them among a group of eight teams within a chance of finishing in the top four.

Northampton technical coaching consultant Alan Gaffney:

"The first half performance was absolutely abysmal - there's no other way to describe it. We thought we had a reasonable week at training, but obviously the message hasn't sunk in with a number of players.

"We came out in the second half and played some reasonable rugby, but still didn't value the ball enough.

"We created a lot of opportunities and could have come away with more than we did, but we put ourselves in such a predicament by half-time that it was a long, hard grind."

Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond:

"We've been really disappointed during the past couple of weeks, but there's only one game this year where we've lost without a bonus point.

"Denny has just signed a four-year contract with us and he's fantastic. I knew when I first met him he would score tries and he's getting better every week.

"He's got to do well to push through for England, but the coaches are going to be watching these games."

Northampton: Tuala, Tuitavake, Horne, Burrell, Foden, Francis, Groom, Ma'afu, Haywood, Brookes, Ratuniyarawa, Day (capt), Wood, Brüssow, Harrison.

Replacements: Marshall, van Wyk, Ford-Robinson, Paterson, Gibson, Reinach, Myler, Pisi.

Sale: Haley; Solomona, Addison (capt), James, Yarde; James, De Klerk; Harrison, Webber, John, Evans, Ostrikov, Ross, Curry, Strauss.

Replacements: Jones, Flynn, Aulika, Beaumont, Neild, Cliff, McGuigan, Charnley.

Sin-bin: Ross, Henly