England stars to the fore as Sale win at Newcastle

Sale Sharks have now won the past five league meetings in the Premiership's 'northern derby'

Gallagher Premiership

Newcastle (10) 15

Tries: Neild, Palframan Con: Connon Pen: Connon

Sale (27) 39

Tries: Rodd, R Du Preez, O'Flaherty, McElroy, Carpenter Cons: Ford 4 Pens: Ford 2

Sale Sharks' England contingent played a starring role as they powered their way to a bonus-point victory at Newcastle Falcons.

George Ford kicked 14 points and set up two tries, prop Bevan Rodd scored a try, and Tom Roebuck caused havoc down the wing.

Rob du Preez, Tom O'Flaherty, Tadgh McElroy and Joe Carpenter grabbed the other scores as they resumed Premiership action with a dominant display.

The five points take Sharks up two places to fifth and one point outside the play-off spots ahead of the rest of the weekend's games.

But it was another tough night for Newcastle, whose tries came from Sale old boy Cameron Neild and Richard Palframan as they stay bottom, six points adrift of Exeter Chiefs.

Alex Sanderson had the luxury of welcoming back five of his seven members of England's Six Nations squad into his Sale team, with only Tom Curry and Luke Cowan-Dickie not involved.

And it showed as they took control from the off, as after an early Ford penalty, prop Rodd showed strength and composure to find the line from 10 metres out.

Neild scored his first Newcastle try to get the home side on the board, but after home fly-half Brett Connon missed a penalty from just inside halfway to level the scores, Sale took command.

Winger Roebuck showed the strength on evidence in England's demolition of Wales six days ago, as defenders could not pin him down and his offload started the move which gave Du Preez a free run to the line.

But central to everything the Sharks were doing was Ford. He backed up his impressive cameo at the Principality Stadium, as his fast hands allowed O'Flaherty to score on half-time and effectively wrap up the game.

The bonus point arrived when Irish hooker McElroy went over early in the second period as Sale continued to boss their troubled opponents.

And they saved their best try for last as Ford produced a gorgeous cross kick that was touched down by a sliding Carpenter, a sign that the fly-half is not giving up the fight for the England jersey against younger men in Fin Smith and Marcus Smith.

Another tough night for Falcons

Off-field matters have again dominated Newcastle's week with news that if new investment is not immediately forthcoming, a loan of around £4 million will be needed to fund their participation in next season's Premiership with recruitment on hold.

But with Championship leaders Ealing Trailfinders failing the necessary criteria to play in the Premiership, the prospect of the Falcons facing a possible two-legged play-off to assure that 10th and final spot is off the table for now.

They go to next-bottom Exeter Chiefs next Saturday and if they lose that, Steve Diamond's men will face propping up the division for a third straight season.

Making sure the Falcons are at least able to occupy that position is the most pressing concern, but they completed the scoring here as replacement prop Palframan grabbed a consolation score right on full-time.

Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond told BBC Sport:

"Credit to Sale, they overpowered us in a couple of instances, but we didn't take our opportunities and were poor in defence.

"We should have been more competitive than we were. It's not endeavour, but we don't think clearly under pressure. We panic a little bit.

"We've not had sharp words in the changing room for a long time, but we have tonight."

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson told BBC Sport:

"I'm very pleased. This is a difficult place to come as they are very good at making it very competitive.

"The boys looked super physical tonight. They've trained with confidence this week and it transferred into our attacking ambition, which we have worked really hard on over the last break. They looked like they wanted to score tries.

"The mantra for this was we can't look past Friday night. Now we've got the champions at home [Northampton Saints], which is exciting. Get a result then and we're properly back in it."

Newcastle: Obatoyinbo; Spencer, Arnold, Clark, Hearle; Connon, Stuart; Brocklebank, Blamire, McCallum, van der Walt, McDonald, Lockwood, Neild, Chick (capt).

Replacements: Fletcher, Rewcastle, Palframan, de Chaves, Leatherbarrow, Davis, Wilkinson, Brown.

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, R du Preez, Ma'asi White, O'Flaherty; Ford, Warr; Rodd, McElroy, Opoku-Fordjour, Bamber, Hill, van Rhyn, B Curry, JL du Preez.

Replacements: Thompson, McIntyre, John, Andrews, Dugdale, Thomas, Bedlow, Reed.

Sin-bin: McIntyre (64).

Referee: Christophe Ridley.