Premiership: Sale 37-14 London Irish - Hosts move top of the table thanks to bonus-point win

Tom Roebuck scored twice as Sale ended a run of two draws in their past two meetings with London Irish with victory on Friday

Sale Sharks moved to the top of the Premiership table courtesy of their bonus-point win over London Irish.

Dan du Preez went over to get Sale going with Joe Carpenter adding to Rob du Preez's kicking for the hosts.

Ollie Hassell-Collins cut the deficit just before the break with Tom Roebuck and Benhard Janse van Rensburg exchanging tries in the second half.

Roebuck touched down again for Sale's bonus point with Ewan Ashman crossing for another try for the hosts late on.

The result means Sale leapfrog Saracens into top spot, albeit having played a game more, with London Irish losing for the third time from their four games so far this season.

Dan du Preez and Jean-Luc du Preez both started alongside Rob du Preez having committed themselves to the club earlier this week until the end of the 2025-26 season.

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The hosts made five changes to their side, with England's Raffi Quirke returning alongside Sam Hill, who made his first start of the season, and they took just 12 minutes to get off the mark when Dan du Preez went over following a rolling maul.

Carpenter continued their good work early on, with Rob du Preez slicing his kick as he went to add the extras, with Hassell-Collins getting Irish on the board not long after.

Janse van Rensburg got the Exiles back into the game after Roebuck went over when he touched down after the ball spilled out from a maul.

But the hosts were not done and Roebuck crashed over from short-range to add the bonus point as Sale seized control, with Ashman's late try only diminished by Tom Curtis failing to convert.

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Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"The defence has always been resolute and physical, but what they're doing in attack nowadays, scoring 37 points is probably the big difference between this season and last.

"That's what I'm talking about, the basics, you just have to convert when you're five metres out, and the options were there. It's a technical fix, it's an easy fix.

"We were really mature in terms of some of the things that didn't go our way. The team stuck to the task and they were playing in the right areas, used the conditions, it was a pretty cold and wet night out there."

London Irish director of rugby Declan Kidney:

"We have to give credit to Sale, they came out with a good game, and unless you're on your game with them, you're going to get results like that.

"They probably won the gain-line both in attack and defence, and when you do that the game is always going to be that little bit more difficult for us and we need to look at that from our side, how we can change that, some decisions that we make.

"Most teams in this league get into a rich vein of form, they're pretty much there at the moment. Once they got a foothold in the match, they had plenty to play for, so we just needed to put them under pressure in a few different aspects of the game."

Sale: Carpenter, Roebuck, S James, Hill, O'Flaherty, R du Preez, Quirke; Rodd, Ashman, Schonert, JL du Preez, Hill, T Curry, B Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Van der Merwe, McIntyre, Oosthuizen, Beaumont, Ross, Warr, Curtis, Reed.

London Irish: Stokes, Loader, Joseph, Janse van Rensburg, Hassell-Collins, Jackson, White; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Chawatama, Ratuniyarawa, Simmons, Donnell, Gonzalez, Fa'aso'o.

Replacements: Miller, Fischetti, Parker, Caulfield, Cunningham-South, Englefield, Luna, Trotter.

Referee: Karl Dickson.