Northampton thrash Sale to extend winning home run

Ollie Sleightholme's double helped Northampton chalk up 40 first-half points

Gallagher Premiership

Northampton (40) 47

Tries: Freeman, Furbank, Sleightholme 2, James, Hendy, Ramm Cons: Smith 6

Sale (10) 17

Tries: Cowan-Dickie, Carpenter Cons: R du Preez 2 Pens: R du Preez

Northampton Saints extended their unbeaten home run past the year mark with a seven-try mauling of abject Sale at Franklin's Gardens.

Luke Cowan-Dickie brought Sale within two points of Saints at 12-10 after early scores from Tommy Freeman and George Furbank.

But that was as good as it got for the error-prone Sharks as four tries in 16 minutes from Ollie Sleightholme (2), Tom James and George Hendy sent Northampton 30 points clear at half-time.

Joe Carpenter replied as the visitors sought a try bonus point, but James Ramm pounced on another Sale mistake to cap an emphatic win.

Sale had top spot in their sights, but were torn apart by a Saints side reprising their title-winning swagger from last season as scintillating attacking rugby ended the match as a contest by the break.

Northampton’s 12th successive Premiership win at Cinch Stadium at Franklin’s Gardens - an unbeaten run which stretches back to 21 October last year - lifted them above Sale to fifth in the table.

Alex Sanderson’s side head to Bath next weekend looking to avoid a third consecutive away defeat, while Saints travel to Bristol.

Sale collapse as Saints find top gear

James Ramm capped the Saints scoring after the break

Northampton had hooker Robbie Smith stretchered off with a suspected knee injury in the opening minutes, echoing the loss of Sam Graham in their previous match against Leicester Tigers, but it did not affect their front-foot mind-set.

Freeman chased down Fin Smith’s weighted kick through to touch down, and his line break then sent Furbank over as the hosts struck twice inside the opening eight minutes.

Sale’s response was quick and clinical as Cowan-Dickie was driven over for his fourth try of the season in an all-action start.

But the wheels fell off spectacularly following Alex Wills’ 19th-minute sin-binning for taking out Hendy in the air as they coughed up 21 points in a disastrous 10-minute spell.

More slick work by the backs handed Sleightholme a clear run to the line before James’ 24th-minute finish, following another spilled pass, sealed the fastest bonus point of the season so far.

Things went from bad to worse for the all-at-sea Sharks as Smith’s kick-through bounced past the embarrassed Tom Roebuck to give Sleightholme a simple second.

And Hendy picked off a loose pass from England flanker Ben Curry to run in and take the Saints to 40 points in just 36 minutes.

A stung Sale showed immediate improvement after their half-time team chat, with Carpenter nipping through a gap to score but Gus Warr was then held up by Premiership debutant Harry Pollock’s try-saving tackle.

As Sharks tried to force the play, the errors continued and Saints were ruthless, hoovering up another loose pass to send Ramm away for their seventh try.

Northampton Saints head coach Sam Vesty told BBC Radio Northampton:

"I enjoyed the first half and the scoreline of the first half. The ball bounced our way a few times and in that way we were fortuitous, but you make your own luck.

"The ball didn’t bounce our way at all last week so we probably got our fair share over the two weeks.

"I thought we were very good, very decisive, we knew what we wanted to do and backed ourselves to go and do it, and when we’ve got that mindset we are a very good attacking unit.

"That’s a very good Sale team and they’ve come out [after half-time] with a very different mindset, and that’s why it’s slightly frustrating that we went away from what we wanted to do a little bit, but we’ll take the result."

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson told BBC Radio Manchester:

"I think our messaging in the week was obviously poor in terms of our priorities and our game model because we looked loose in that first half. We gave them a lot of turnover ball and easy transitions to score four tries, just off our mistakes.

"You can’t play loose against an angry team and they were obviously really angry after losing that derby last weekend.

"We gave them enough to get their tails up, and when Northampton have their tails up they are the best in the country - and that’s why they’re the champions.

"At half-time when we simplified things and talked about our mentality, we came out and were really competitive again."

Northampton: Furbank (capt); Hendy, Freeman, Hutchinson, Sleightholme; F Smith, T James; Iyogun, R Smith, Davison, Thornbury, Munga, Scott-Young, Pearson, Pollock.

Replacements: C Langdon, Haffar, Millar Mills, Hunter-Hill, Kemeny, McParland, Litchfield, Ramm.

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, Nayacalevu, Bedlow, Wills; R du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, Van Rhyn, Andrews, T Curry, B Curry (capt), D du Preez.

Replacements: Caine, Onasanya, Harper, Bamber, Dugdale, Thomas, Curtis, L James.

Sin-bin: Wills (19).

Referee: Christophe Ridley