Sale Sharks came up short against a powerful Northampton Saints side who scored seven tries to go top of the Gallagher Prem.
Sharks scored four tries of their own to secure a bonus point, and were leading with 15 mins left, but late tries from Josh Kemeny, Alex Coles and and Henry Pollock wrapped up the win for the visitors.
With eight Saints named in the England squad for the Six Nations, the visitors came into round 10 on the crest of a wave, and that carried on into the first 12 mins at the CorpAcq Stadium as they scored two but threatened to cut the home side open with every attack.
Tommy Freeman scored first and that was followed by a Rory Hutchison score. Both were converted by Anthony Belleau to give Saints a 0-14 lead.
Sharks have got six England call-ups of their own and they fought back to cut the deficit to seven when Raffi Quirke dived over under the posts and George Ford converted.
Sharks flanker Tom Curry was sin binned before half-time for a high tackle but the final points of the half went to Sharks with a Ford penalty.
The teams went in at half-time separated by just four points but it was Sharks who flew out of the blocks to score the first points of the second period.
Alex Wills, who dominated the skies throughout, caught another high ball straight from the kick off and after a period of Sharks pressure, Joe Carpenter dived over in the corner.
Saints hit back immediately and scored through a pick and go, but on 55 Sharks took the lead again when Ford released Rekeiti Ma’asi-White who powered through and fed Tom O’Flaherty to go over in the corner.
Ford converted but the home side’s 22-21 lead only lasted two mins. On 57 England scrum-half Alex Mitchell caught a kick in his half and one pass created a four on one, which was finished by Italian winger Edoardo Todaro. The conversion was missed and the score was 22-26.
Driven on by a vociferous crowd, Sharks came again and just after the hour mark O’Flaherty scored his second from a Rob du Preez cross field kick. Ford nailed a tricky conversion to send the home fans wild and make it 29-26.
Those were to be the last points scored by the home side as Saints showed why they’re the team to catch in the Gallagher Prem.
First Josh Kemeny scored in the corner after a break from Callum Chick and with just five minutes left Alex Coles stretched for the line to take the lead to eight.
With Sharks still fighting for a try that could have levelled the game, Henry Pollock pounced on a loose ball to put the seal on Saints’ first win at the CorpAcq since 2017.
