Premiership: Harlequins 14-36 Sale Sharks - visitors record dominant win at champions

Tom Roebuck scored two tries for Sale in the first half at The Stoop

Two Tom Roebuck tries set Sale Sharks on their way to a dominant win at Premiership champions Harlequins.

Hooker Ewan Ashman then broke through to give the Sharks a 22-0 lead before Hugh Tizard hit back in first-half added time to give the hosts hope.

But two second-half tries from Rob du Preez either side of a Tommy Allan score for Quins secured the victory and the bonus point for the visitors.

Quins drop to fourth following their heaviest defeat of the season.

Sale were also able to give England centre Manu Tuilagi and South Africa scrum-half Faf de Klerk 30 minutes off the bench on their respective returns from injury.

Tuilagi in particular impressed with some big hits as he played for the first time since November.

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Sale fly-half AJ MacGinty missed an early opportunity as his first attempt sailed wide in the wind, before making no mistake with his second from right in front of the posts.

Sharks then moved the ball out to the right for the impressive winger Roebuck to score the first try after 16 minutes.

The pacy 21-year-old then darted inside after faking to go out wide to claim his sixth try in four matches.

Quins' defence then went to sleep as Sale scrum-half Raffi Quirke took a quick tap-penalty and fed hooker Ashman to power over the line.

Tizard got one back for Quins in what proved to be the final action of the first half but the home side could not build on that momentum in the second period, as outside centre Du Preez burst through to secure a bonus point for his team.

De Klerk, who had not played since October, came on at the same time as Tuilagi, with the latter instantly putting his mark on the game with a trademark hard tackle on Andre Esterhuizen.

Allan saw a gap in the Sale defence to score his first try for Harlequins and set up an intriguing last 15 minutes.

But a second try from Du Preez, brilliantly assisted via a chip through by De Klerk, ended any thoughts of a Quins fightback.

Harlequins senior coach Tabai Matson told BBC Radio London:

"It was predictably physical and we had a game plan but I think that scoreline reflects a team that was convincingly beaten by the opposition.

"We brought on some academy guys who were exceptional in my opinion.

"But we gave them a 22-point head start and if they bring these guys [Tuilagi and De Klerk] off the bench it just makes our day harder."

On missing players to the Six Nations: "That can never be an excuse. There's an opportunity for guys to step up to this level.

"It's no excuse. They're missing one of the best players in England themselves [England captain Tom Curry] today."

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"If you come down here and don't believe in yourselves, you end up being a bit part as has happened many times in the past.

"We came down here with the intention of imposing our style of play more like a horror show than the Harlem Globetrotters.

"We've now won back-to-back games in the competition as we've now got a consistent squad and are finding a rich vein of form.

"They had a few key players missing whereas we had most of our stars back in our line-up.

"We are still aiming for the play-offs as I believe we are that good and should be there."

Harlequins: Green; Lynach, Northmore, Esterhuizen, Murley; Allan, Care; Els, Walker (capt), Kerrod, Symons, Tizard, Taulani, Wallace, White.

Replacements: Riley, Baxter, Wilson, Hammond, Jurevicius, Gjaltema, Edwards, Beard.

Sale: L James; Roebuck, R du Preez, Janse van Rensburg, Reed; MacGinty, Quirke; Harrison, Ashman, Oosthuizen, JL du Preez, De Jager, Ross (capt), Dugdale; D du Preez.

Replacements: Langdon, Rodd, Jones, JP du Preez, Wiese, De Klerk, S James, Tuilagi.

Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).

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