London Irish 20-12 Sale
London Irish (12) 20
Tries: Tagicakibau, Tiesi, Armitage
Pens: Hickey
Cons: Armitage
Sale (3) 12
Pens: McAlister 4
London Irish inflicted Sale's first Premiership defeat for almost three months at the Madejski Stadium. Samoan winger Sailosi Tagicakibau opened the scoring inside two minutes, with Delon Armitage adding two points from the conversion.
Gonzalo Tiesi scored the second in the 33rd minute and Armitage added the Exiles' third try after half-time before Eoghan Hickey's late penalty.
All of Sales 12 points came from the boot of fly-half Luke McAlister.
The visitors, without injured fly-half Charlie Hodgson, slipped one place to fifth in the table after Leicester's win at Harlequins, while London Irish extended the gap over the bottom two sides.
All Blacks star McAlister took over the number 10 shirt from Hodgson, with Chris Mayor starting alongside Lee Thomas at centre.
Sale director Philippe Saint-Andre also gave the front row a shake-up with three new faces from the side beat Leeds Carnegie the previous Sunday.
And they began in the worst fashion when Tagicakibau touched down after brilliant work from fellow winger Topsy Ojo and a long pass from the returning Shane Geraghty.
Armitage converted the extras, but found himself in the sin-bin five minutes later for a trip on Mark Cueto and conceded his side's first points of the afternoon when McAlister slotted over a penalty.
But despite their one-man disadvantage, Irish continued to impose their authority on the game and were rewarded for their endeavours when Argentine Tiesi found himself on an overlap outside Tagicakibau and crossed over for five points.
Armitage extended the home side's lead two minutes after the half-time interval when he latched onto Geraghty's pass.
Sale wasted their best try-scoring opportunity when flanker Magnus Lund threw a forward pass to an unmarked Cueto on 55 minutes.
Despite their dominance, Irish never had the game out of sight as McAlister kicked over two further penalties.
But Hickey ensured the victory when he kicked over a 71st-minute penalty.
London Irish coach Tony Booth: "We had a lot of endeavour, and the difference between this week and last week against Leicester was we were quite clinical. If you can get quick ball on the front foot, it makes a world of difference. "The scrum was also a big focus for us. Andrew Sheridan and Sebastien Bruno are formidable in the Sale front-row, but Tonga Lea'aetoa scrummaged incredibly well. It was a really pleasing aspect of our game.
"Shane Geraghty has been out for a long time through injury. But he has put about three games together now, and we are starting to see some of the touches that got him into the England fold last season.
"He believes he can score from anywhere on the pitch, and we don't want to coach that out of him."
Sale boss Philippe Saint-Andre: "We don't deserve to be in the top four with a performance like that. It was our worst performance of the season. "I don't know how many mistakes we made - it was a very bad day for us. Irish played with a lot of commitment and passion, and it was a case of being patient against them and keeping the ball, but we didn't do it.
"Charlie Hodgson is very important to us, but today we couldn't catch the ball or keep it for more than three phases. We didn't deserve to win.
"I was expecting something much better than we showed. If we continue to play like this, I don't think many of our players will be involved in the Six Nations."
London Irish : D. Armitage, Ojo, Tiesi, Geraghty, Tagicakibau, Hickey, Hodgson, Dermody, Paice, Lea'aetoa, Kennedy, Casey, Danaher, S. Armitage, Thorpe, Mordt.
Replacements : Mordt, Richards, D. Murphy, Hudson, Leguizamon, Coetzee, P. Murphy
Sale : Laharrague, Cueto, Mayor, Thomas, Ripol, McAlister, Wigglesworth, Sheridan, Bruno, Roberts, C. Jones, Cockbain, White, Lund, Chabal.
Replacements : Keil, Faure, Briggs, Turner, Schofield, Cox, Martens
Att : 9,744
Ref : S Davey (RFU).
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