Premiership: Saracens 25-14 Sale - 14-man Sharks beaten as hosts go second

Vincent Koch's 18th-minute pushover effort was the only try of the first half at StoneX Stadium

Saracens went second in the Premiership with a home win against Sale Sharks.

Having trailed 13-0 at the break after Vincent Koch's try, supplemented by three kicks from Alex Lozowski, Sale's battle became even more uphill when they had Byron McGuigan sent off.

Sale's Ben Curry and Raffi Quirke went over as the sides shared four second-half tries, but the Sharks never got within range of a losing bonus point.

Scot Sean Maitland and England's Max Malins got Sarries' other two tries.

Aside from heated Scotland winger McGuigan's 46th-minute red card for throwing Wales centre Nick Tompkins to the ground, Sale had already been disrupted by the first-half loss of skipper Jono Ross, who did not return to the field after a 22nd-minute head injury assessment.

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But Sarries - and England boss Eddie Jones - were more concerned by the role played by fit-again loose forward Billy Vunipola, who marked his return from injury by playing a key part in the hosts' second try.

The big number eight showed no ill-effects from the knee injury that kept him out for four weeks as he dummied before sending a long, floated pass which got Scotland winger Maitland over in the right corner.

At 18-0 down, although there was no realistic way back for Sale, they did cross in the 62nd minute when Curry darted over - and AJ MacGinty added the extras.

Premiership top scorer Max Malins returned from England duty to go over for his eighth Saracens try of the season

But that revival was quickly snuffed out when Alex Goode produced a clever reverse pass to send in-form England flier Malins over.

Scrum-half Quirke, back to club action after earning his first two caps for England and scoring the winning try against South Africa, replied for a second time - and MacGinty kicked that one too. But that was as close as the visitors got.

Saracens will be back in Premiership action at Exeter on Saturday as they meet their main title rivals of recent years for the first time since returning to the top flight.

But it is Sale's turn for a week off - and, for McGuigan, there may be further weeks off to follow.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson, who was assistant boss at Sarries for 13 years, had one theory on the red card incident. He claimed afterwards that McGuigan's mixed martial arts background had maybe affected his thinking.

Sale winger McGuigan was successful with this tackle on opposite number Rotimi Segun - but he got it wrong with his later challenge on Nick Tompkins

Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall:

"Billy Vunipola was really good again. It is a series of games he has put together for the club all season. He has been inspirational for us all the way through. Eddie Jones has just asked him to keep on backing up performances and he certainly did that.

"The first half was really good. It's as good as we've been physically all season. You have to be against Sale because they're a really confrontational and physical side.

"But I'm really disappointed with how we managed the second half. It's bit of a symptom of our season so far, we've been hot and cold in a lot of matches and the last 25 minutes didn't feel very good."

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"Byron trains at UFC on his time off so maybe he just had a flashback of some sort of ultimate fighting session he's done. I haven't spoken to him.

"He's a great lad, one of the hardest workers. The emotion, the occasion, the fact we hadn't scored - I was feeling that too. It probably got the better of him.

"We've now got an invasion of London planned. We're in The Ship in Wandsworth to lick our wounds. Then we've got a rat race and the magical world of Winter Wonderland on Monday. Then it's a couple of days off and we're into prepping for Ospreys [Sale's next game on Sunday 12 December]."

Saracens: Malins; Maitland, Lozowski, Tompkins, Segun; Goode (co-capt), Davies; Mako Vunipola, Lewis, Koch, Itoje, Swinson, Isiekwe, Wray (co-capt), B Vunipola,

Replacements: Pifeleti, Barrington, Clarey, McFarland, Earl, Van Zyl, Morris, Lewington.

Sale: Hammersley; McGuigan, S James, van Rensburg, Roebuck; MacGinty, Quirke; Rodd, Van der Merwe, Schonert, JL Du Preez, De Jager, Ross (capt), B Curry, D Du Preez.

Replacements: Ashman, Harrison, Oosthuizen, JP Du Preez, T Curry, Warr, R Du Preez, L James.

Sent off: McGuigan (46).

Referee: Thomas Foley (RFU).

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