Matchday Live

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to extend Sale’s lead to six but in the process of taking the kick appeared to pull his right quad muscle and had to be withdrawn soon after for Sam Bedlow.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.