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Sale Sharks blew Worcester Warriors away with a stunning second-half show as they ran in six tries to secure another bonus-point victory in the Gallagher Premiership.

After Sam James’ early try, the lead swapped hands three times as Tom Howe and Niall Annett crossed for Worcester either side of Arron Reed for Sale but it was a different story after the break, with the wind at Sale’s backs.

Manu Tuilagi, Curtis Langdon, Janse van Rensburg and Reed all scored as Diamond’s young Warriors crumpled.
AJ MacGinty, who had missed both his first-half conversions, kicked three out of the four after the turnaround to help Sale register their biggest league win of the season.

Sale had not only England centre Tuilagi back on show but South Africa’s fit-again World Cup winning scrum-half Faf de Klerk making his first start of the season – and even when he went off on 52 minutes he was replaced by exciting young England scrum-half contender Raffi Quirke.

It was Tuliagi who triggered Sale’s second-half surge when he touched down to give his side back the lead for the first of three tries in 12 minutes.

And the hosts never looked back as they followed up their wins over league leaders Leicester and defending champions Harlequins for a third straight victory to move them within just four points of fourth spot.

After Perry Humphreys had been sin-binned for a cynical tackle on Reed, Quirke offloaded for Langdon to go over.
Quirke was also involved in the tries for Reed and Van Rensburg which finished Worcester off – and Sale boss Alex Sanderson believes he should be ahead of Ben Youngs and Harry Randall in the queue for the the first-choice England number nine jersey.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:
“Manu was outstanding again. Fortunately – because it’s good for the country – he will go to England and will hopefully do as good a job there as he has here for the last two weeks.

“He will phone Eddie Jones and they will make up their own plan. I’m really excited for him. He’s going to do well because he’s trained hard, he’s prepped well and his head is in a good place.

“I’m biased, but Raffi Quirke would be my starting nine whatever side I was picking or coaching. So long as he keeps doing that, and he’s up against the other best scrum-half in the world (Faf de Klerk), it’s going to make it very difficult for Eddie not to pick him.

“That’s all he can do. That’s all he can control. At the moment it’s Eddie’s opinion and he has to respect that, but the way you change someone’s opinion is through continuing to play like that.”