Sale 52, Bradford & Bingley 20

Bradford & Bingley dropped to the bottom of SSE National League Three North with this defeat, but the feeling in the camp is that the team are beginning to pull together and have the talent and application to start to pull away from the relegation zone.

The Bees' director of rugby Henry Paul said after the game that he believes his side are "improving in all areas".

He added: "If we were filling out a report card on our performance, there are a lot of positives - we are creating more chances in attack and we have a good feeling among the boys.

"However, we are undoing all that good work by making far too many unforced errors. We gifted Sale three of their scores and they are far too good to be given any chances.

"They have players like Chris Mayor, who was in the Premiership 12 months ago. Sale are the best side we have played and they look like a side who are going for promotion - but we scored three good tries.

"We might have had more and we feel as though we can go to Huddersfield next week and come away with something. We have then to target the Morley game and we can start to turn things around."

The home side dominated the first half, but, in familar story for the Bees this season, the pack were at least equal to their opponents, but the home back line were a different class in the opening 40.

The Bees backs took some time to adjust to the flair of the home three-quarters, but as the game wore on the visitors began to achieve some level of parity, but by that stage the Manchester side had already run up a 30-point advantage.

James Morton, Brett Campbell and Rikki Sheriffe all had moments where they troubled their hosts, with Nick Wainwright and Henry Paul looking to spark something from half-back, but the quality of the home side's attacking play had the game won before half-time, turning round with a 24-3 advantage.

Sale opened their account in the fifth minute through wingman Ben Stelmaszek, and quickly improved their lead as John O'Donnell crossed in the 12th minute.

With No 8 Ben Llloyd adding a third score just after the quarter mark of the game had passed, it seemed a cricket score may be looming as the home side were running in the points at just shy of a point a minute.

A Paul penalty was the Bees only score in the first half, although he will be disappointed with that return as another three reasonably straightforward shots at goal did not find their target.

The Bees had at least stopped the Sale onslaught temporarily but ten minutes into the second half a penalty from Liam McGovern, adding to his earlier conversions, and a try from Jack Moorhouse pushed the hosts into a 31-3 lead.

The Bees replied with a score from Chris Fisher following a period of pressure from the pack, but Sale were able to regain their advantage right on the hour with a penalty try.

The final 20 minutes saw the Wagon Lane side start to step up to the challenge and, although they were too far adrift to pull back a win, it appeared they might just get a bonus point or two with four tries and getting within seven of their hosts.

In the final quarter, the Bees efforts were rewarded with tries for skipper Brett Mitchell and Rikki Sherriffe, but they were unable to keep the back door closed as their hosts also ran in two further scores.