 Champions Sale slipped to eighth in the Premiership |
Sale: (6) 9
Pens: Thomas (3)
London Irish: (8) 14
Tries: Tagicakibau
Pens: Geraghty (2)
Drops: Geraghty
Struggling champions Sale slipped to eighth in the Premiership after a low-scoring defeat by visitors London Irish at Edgeley Park on Friday.
Sale edged clear with two Lee Thomas penalties after 20 minutes but Sailosi Tagicakibau's try cut the gap.
Exiles' Shane Geraghty then added a penalty for an 8-6 lead at the break.
And the England fly-half added another three-pointer and a drop-goal, against a late Thomas penalty, to help his side climb to sixth in the table.
Sale, who picked up a bonus point for losing by less than seven points, crashed to their fourth straight defeat.
The Sharks were without a host of internationals but welcomed back England prop Andrew Sheridan on 49 minutes.
But the Sharks' woes increased midway through the second half as second row Dean Schofield was shown his second yellow card of the season after holding onto the ball in a ruck.
London Irish boss Brian Smith:
"It was a courageous defensive performance from us but unfortunately it has cost us. "We've got three front-row players sitting in the dressing room with injuries and they look to be significant.
"Danie Coetzee has got a broken cheekbone which looks to be quite nasty, Fran Rautenbach is struggling with a calf and Tonga Lea'aetoa has damaged his Achilles."
"Sale threw everything at us and nearly cracked us a few times but the team managed to scramble in defence and we held them out."
Sale director of rugby Philippe Saint-Andre:
"The problem we have at the moment, is that we have got a lot of young kids of 20 or 21 in the team, and they are just learning their jobs. "We started well in the first 20 minutes but when we got in good positions we seemed to make the wrong decisions. They then got one chance at the opposite end and scored from it.
"Tonight the players worked really hard but it was maybe a lack of concentration at the wrong time and we were suddenly low on confidence.
"It's at times like this we have to work extra hard and not forget that last season we were English champions."
Sale: Cueto (capt); Mayor, Taylor, Bell, Foden; Thomas, Wigglesworth; Roberts, Bruno, Evans, Day, Schofield, Jones, Titterrell, Fernandez Lobbe.
Replacements: Turner, Sheridan, Cox, Hills, Blair, Vilk, Hanley.
London Irish: Armitage; Ojo, Mapusua, Flutey, Tagicakibau; Geraghty, Hodgson; Lea'aetoa, Coetzee, Rautenbach, Kennedy, Casey, Roche, Armitage, Murphy.
Replacements: Hatley, Russell, Hudson, Leguizamon, Magne, Mordt, Barry Everitt.
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