Du Preez brothers seal points for Sale

Much has been made this week of Saracens’ salary-cap scandal, and rightly so, but this was a victory for a Sale side who are spending up to the limit for the first time in years.

When it was announced that Sarries had been docked 35 points and fined £5.36 million for breaches since 2016-17, a bitter fallout began. A game of rugby thus came as a blessed relief and Sale edged a penalty-strewn encounter thanks to a try from South African No8 Daniel du Preez and 17 points with the boot from his brother Rob.

Sale’s director of rugby Steve Diamond,

Try scorer: Daniel du Preez set Sale on their way to beating Wasps

who lost Josh Beaumont to a knee injury during the second half, said: “He’s gone to hospital, so it’s obviously serious.”

After full-back Simon Hammersley was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, a driving maul from Wasps culminated in Sione Vailanu scoring under the posts, before a fine break from Sale winger Byron Mcguigan led to Daniel du Preez stepping inside to score.

Sale scrum-half Embrose Papier raced from his own half to the line, only for his effort to be chalked off by the TMO for an obstruction.

Wasps came back through wing Zach Kibirige, who grounded his own chip kick in the 52nd minute.

But with Rob du Preez kicking five penalties, and AJ Macginty notching two, victory was Sale’s.

Wasps’ Paolo Odogwu was sent off late on for aiming a kick at Rohan Janse van Rensburg. Director of rugby Dai Young, whose side conceded 19 penalties, said: “It’s hard to take, but we’ve got to look at ourselves.”