Saracens see off Sale to secure second successive win

Alex Lozowski's 23 points helped Saracens win their opening home match of the season

Gallagher Premiership

Saracens (12) 45

Tries: Elliott, Daly 2, George Cons: Lozowski Pens: Lozowski 7, Daly

Sale (13) 26

Tries: Warr, Cowan-Dickie, O'Flaherty Cons: du Preez Pens: Ford, du Preez 2

Saracens saw off an injury-depleted Sale Sharks 45-26 at the Stone X Stadium to claim their second successive win to go top of the embryonic Premiership table.

Seven penalties from Alex Lozowski and tries from Tobias Elliott, two from Elliot Daly, and Jamie George helped secure the win for Sarries after trailing Sale by a point at half-time.

Tries from Gus Warr, Luke Cowan-Dickie, and Tom O'Flaherty proved mere consolation for Sale who lost both George Ford and Jean-Luc du Preez early on to injury.

Sam Dugdale suffered a red card in additional time for Sale who stay seventh.

Sale started the match impressively and, two minutes in, Ford put a superb kick over the posts to put the visitors into the lead.

Four minutes later, Ford had the opportunity to extend Sale's lead to six but in the process of taking the kick appeared to pull his right quad muscle and had to be withdrawn soon after for Sam Bedlow.

Lozowski gained parity with a successful kick before Sale number eight Jean-Luc du Preez had to be replaced following a head collision.

His brother, centre Rob du Preez then ran clean through on goal to gorgeously offload to substitute Bedlow who in turn found scrum-half Gus Warr for an excellent Sale score underneath the sticks.

Two kicks from Sarries within three minutes reduced the arrears to one point before Sam Dugdale was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Ben Earl.

A kick from Lozowski in front of the posts earned Sarries a brief lead before Rob du Preez restored Sale's lead by a point with an excellent kick in a topsy-turvy first 40 minutes.

The second-half began with another blow for the Sharks after Hyron Andrews and captain Ben Curry both had to leave the field for head injuries.

Following an underwhelming first 40 minutes, Sarries finally clicked into gear and a wonderful pass out right from Lozowski found the flying Tobias Elliott for an excellent score in the corner.

Tobias Elliott's try helped spark Saracens into life

Sale refused to lie down though and following an excellent line-out, hooker Cowan-Dickie dived over for a rare try.

The injuries didn't end there for Sale, however, as Rob du Preez appeared to hobble away following an unsuccessful conversion attempt, but he managed to return to the action.

Sarries veteran Alex Goode then rolled back the years with a terrific grubber kick just minutes after coming off the bench to find Elliot Daly to score his first of the match after a short TMO review.

Substitute Jamie George dived over for Sarries 10 minutes from time following a surge from his own line-out before Sale winger Tom O'Flaherty dotted down for Sale in the corner.

Dugdale then received a second yellow-card in injury time for Sale before Daly scored his second for Sarries after more great work from Lozowski in an entertaining win for the hosts in North London.

Saracens Director of Rugby Mark McCall:

"I thought Sale had a lot to contend with, losing a player like George Ford early doors was really tough for them.

"It was a proper contest for 50 minutes or so and we were a little bit disappointed with just overall how we were in the first half.

"Our energy was not quite at the levels that we would want it to be at but we thought that improved significantly in the second half and we were able to build a lot of pressure in the second against a good team."

Sale Sharks physio Navdeep Sandhu on George Ford's first-half injury:

"Yeah, so George just felt his quad when he went for that long-distance kick.

"He thought like he felt he could carry on, but was just slightly aware of it and I suspected that meant it would get worse as the game carried on.

"It is probably too early to say [how severe his injury is], the fact we are getting an image of it means we are suspecting something."

Saracens: Daly; Elliott, Lozowski, Tompkins, Segun; Burke, Van Zyl; Carre, Dan, Riccioni, Itoje (capt), Tizard, Onyeama-Christie, Earl, Willis.

Replacements: George, Crean, Clarey, Isiekwe, McFarland, Knight, Bracken, Goode.

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, Nayacalevu, R du Preez, O'Flaherty; Ford, Warr; Mcintyre, Cowan-Dickie, Opoku-Fordjour, Bamber, Andrews, Dugdale, B Curry, (capt) JL du Preez.

Replacements: Caine, Onasanya, Harper, Beaumont, Birch, Thomas, Bedlow, Addison.

Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe