Premiership: Sale Sharks 26-18 Wasps - Sale secure bonus-point win

Rohan Janse van Rensburg scored Sale's third try of the match and his first league try of the season

Sale Sharks secured a bonus-point win against Wasps to climb above them in the Premiership table.

Josh Bassett crossed early on for Wasps but Sale quickly got out in front through a Jean-Luc du Preez try.

Sale's Marland Yarde and Rohan Janse van Rensburg made it 19-8 at half-time.

Ben Curry scored his side's fourth try for the bonus point after the restart and while Jimmy Gopperth went over as a consolation, an impressive Sale defence proved largely impenetrable.

Sale climb to ninth in the table, while Wasps drop to 10th, with both sides on 24 points.

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Sale's past two games have been called off, including their league fixture against Newcastle on 26 December, and they have played just once in the Premiership since their win over Northampton on 6 November.

However there was little sign of rustiness over the 80 minutes.

Wasps, who beat London Irish on Boxing Day, took only three minutes to score, working the ball left across midfield from a line-out, for Bassett on the wing to run over in the corner for his first league try of the season.

Sale went in front shortly after, fooling the Wasps defence from the scrum with a dummy run before lock Du Preez crossed from close range.

A Gopperth penalty edged Wasps back ahead by a point but it was short lived, as Yarde dived over in the left corner thanks to quick hands from AJ MacGinty from the restart.

Van Rensburg powered over for Sale's third inside 30 minutes, after their driving maul got within sight of the line.

The home side almost had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time but while the maul drove the ball over in the corner on 35 minutes, Rob du Preez was judged to have joined it too early from the line-out and it was ruled out for offside.

Curry picked up where Sale left off immediately in the second half, cleverly collecting the ball from a long line-out throw to score their fourth and make it 26-8.

It sealed Sale's first bonus point since 9 October in their defeat by Gloucester.

Gopperth kicked a penalty to reduce the gap to 15 points, but whenever the Wasps attack broke over the Sale 22m line, it came to nothing on the scoreboard as the home defence pushed them back.

With Coenie Oosthuizen sent to the sin bin late on, Gopperth pulled a consolation try back for Wasps as the clock ticked into red, but it was not enough to stop them being condemned to their fifth away defeat this season.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"It wasn't the easiest of victories but we've done everything we needed to do to help us keep marching up the table. The whole team have given me everything again.

"I'll have a nice night now but then it's about cracking on again - we've started the year really well.

"I thought we looked a bit tired in the final quarter but the job was pretty much done in that first 60 minutes. I was really happy with the performance and we've come through it without any new injuries too.

"Hopefully that alone will give us a little bit of consistency in terms of team selection ahead of what promises to be a very busy period."

Wasps head coach Lee Blackett told BBC Radio C&W:

"Disappointed. We came out on the wrong side physically, we lost a lot of battles out there. I think everyone knows about Sale's defence and knows about how well structured they are and how good they are on the day and we couldn't match it.

"Physicality was one of our key words coming into this game and I thought early on we got ourselves an early lead, promising start and you can't give Sale field position.

"You'll find a five-metre line-out just in front of me here we go and lose, gift them a point. We've got a guy injured who's part of the lifting pod and we're not smart enough and they kick it to that side, we don't win the ball in the air and they score in the corner. You've got two scores there - you can't give teams field position.

"The only positive I can probably take out of it is that could have gone very horrible, very quickly towards the end.

"But we showed a bit of grit and a bit of fight to stay in it and we were unlucky with the amount of possession and territory we had towards the end, trying to at least get a point out of that."

Sale: L James; McGuigan, R du Preez, Van Rensburg, Yarde; MacGinty, Cliff; Rood, Ashman, Schonert, J-L du Preez, De Jager, Ross (capt), B Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, Mcintyre, Oosthuizen, Postlethwaite, Dugdale, Warr, S James, Roebuck.

Sin bin: Oosthuizen (74).

Wasps: Crossdale; Hougaard, Spink, Le Bourgeois, Bassett; Gopperth, Wolstenholme; West, Frost, Alo, Fifita, Stooke, Shields (capt), Carr, Barbeary.

Replacements: Cruse, Hislop, Toomaga-Allen, Cardall, Willis, Porter, Atkinson, Miller.

Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).

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