Sale star Mark Taylor crossed for a first-half try

London Irish (7) 14
Try:Tagicakibau, Armitage
Cons: Everitt (2)

Sale (24) 31
Try: Cueto, Taylor, Ripol (2)
Cons: Hodgson (4)
Pens: Hodgson

Premiership champions Sale warmed up for their Heineken Cup visit to Swansea on Friday by outclassing London Irish.

Having lost on the opening weekend to Leicester, Sale have now won four straight and look in great touch.

The visitors were 17 points clear at the break after tries from Mark Cueto, Mark Taylor and Oriol Ripol.

The Exiles missed too many tackles to mount a real challenge and by the time Ripol added a second try after 61 minutes the match was effectively over.

England fly-half Charlie Hodgson enjoyed a faultless afternoon with the boot, slotting all four conversions and a penalty.

London Irish wing Sailosi Tagicakibau claimed a first-half try and substitute Steffon Armitage crossed late on, with fly-half Barry Everitt booting two conversions, but Exiles will need a vast improvement in Friday's Heineken Cup opener against Llanelli Scarlets to keep the Welsh side at bay.

"Normally, we have 48 hours' recovery time after a game, then the players have the day off 48 hours before a match, followed by a team run the day before the game.

"How can I manage things this week? I can't go into the game with just a 45-minute team run - maybe it will be one session on Tuesday and one session on Wednesday. I would say the disadvantage is 20 or 30%.

"A week before the Heineken Cup starts, all the games need to be played by Saturday night so you can have a full week's training. It is not fair for the competition."

"It was a very tough afternoon at the office, and the boys are quite battered.

"Sale dominated the collisions, although we gifted them two tries in the first half from turnovers.

"During the interval, we asked the players to knuckle down, which is what they did."

London Irish: Horak, Ojo, Mapusua, Flutey, Tagicakibau, Everitt, Rees, Hatley, Coetzee, Skuse, Kennedy, J. Hudson, Roche, Magne, Leguizamon.
Replacements: Lea'aetoa, Paice, P. Murphy, McCullen, S. Armitage, Shabbo, Geraghty.

Sale: Robinson, Cueto, Taylor, Seveali'i, Ripol, Hodgson, Wigglesworth, Sheridan, Bruno, Turner, Jones, Schofield, White, Lund, J. Fernandez Lobbe.
Replacements: Briggs, Stewart, Chabal, Day, Martens, Thomas, Mayor.