Saracens blow Sale away

The defending champions once again look the team to beat this season and served notice of their intentions to make it back-to-back titles with a commanding bonus point success.

Mark McCall's men simply had too much in attack for their opposition with Sean Maitland scoring twice in a six-try success. In the process, they recorded their 12th straight European victory which is one short of Munster's record.

Owen Farrell fired Saracens into the lead at a rain-soaked Allianz Park with a penalty after six minutes. It almost got even better for the European champions when Richard Wigglesworth looked to have forced his way over, but looking at the TMO, rugby league convert Josh Charnley had somehow stopped him short.

Farrell added another penalty moments later to pull his side six points clear before American AJ McGinty narrowed the gap with a shot of his own. But Marcelo Bosch made the breakthrough after 18 minutes.

Wigglesworth spotted a gap at the side of a ruck and streaked down field. He passed the ball to Schalk Burger, who found Bosch in support. And the centre ran in unopposed to put Sarries 13-3 ahead.

Farrell added a pair of penalties before it got even better. The England back sent Maitland through a hole in the Sale midfield and the Scotland wing raced home to score. Bosch added a late penalty to send Saracens into the changing rooms with a 26-3 lead.

The one-sided nature of the contest continued after the break. With Farrell replaced by Alex Lozowski at the break, Sale were then dealt another blow when Jonathan Mills was yellow carded for bringing down a line-out.

Down to 14, the visitors were up against it and Saracens quickly added three more scores. Jamie George powered over, Chris Wyles collected an Alex Goode grubber to dive over in the corner and Maitland added his second following what looked like a questionable forward pass.

Lozowski booted one conversion from those three scores and at 43-3, the game was over.

Sale introduced former Wales scrumhalf Mike Phillips in the final quarter but with James Flynn the next to see yellow for a high tackle on Schalk Brits, the away side's discipline let them down.

There was still time for one more score as the rain came down, Richard Barrington barreling his way over in the final 10 minutes with Lozowski once again adding the extras.

Scorers:

For Saracens:

Tries: Bosch, Maitland 2, George, Wyles, Barrington

Cons: Farrell 2, Lozowski 2

Pens: Farrell 3, Bosch

For Sale Sharks:

Pen: McGinty

Yellow cards: Laurence Pearce (Sale Sharks, 21); Jon Mills (Sale Sharks, 45); James Flynn (Sale Sharks, 68)

Teams:

Saracens: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Marcelo Bosch, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 Chris Wyles, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 Schalk Burger 7 Kelly Brown, 6 Michael Rhodes, 5 George Kruis, 4 Maro Itoje, 3 Petrus du Plessis, 2 Jamie George, 1 Mako Vunipola.

Replacements: 16 Schalk Brits, 17 Richard Barrington, 18 Vincent Koch, 19 Jim Hamilton, 20 Will Skelton, 21 Ben Spencer, 22 Alex Lozowski, 23 Nathan Earle.

Sale Sharks: 15 Tom Arscott, 14 Paolo Odogwu, 13 Sam James, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Josh Charnley, 10 AJ McGinty, 9 James Mitchell, 8 Laurence Pearce, 7 David Seymour, 6 Tom Curry, 5 Jonathan Mills, 4 Josh Beaumont, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Ross Harrison.

Replacements: 16 Cameron Neild, 17 James Flynn, 18 Ciaran Parker, 19 George Nott, 20 Ben Curry, 21 Mike Phillips, 22 Dan Mugford, 23 Mark Jennings.

Referee: Mathieu Raynal (France)

Assistant referees: Maxime Chalon (France), Thomas Dejean (France)

TMO: Eric Briquet-Campin (France)

@ChampionsCup