article_snippet.sent: Straight from the kick-off, Irish made simple errors, giving the visitors a platform to attack and with Danny Cipriani pulling the strings, Sale created an overlap providing Arscott with an easy run-in.
article_snippet.sent: Irish missed an early opportunity for points by declining to take a kickable penalty and it proved the wrong option as Irish attacking line-out failed to provide any dividend.
article_snippet.sent: The opening period was played at a frenetic pace with Irish struggling to cope as Sale were all action, moving the ball at every opportunity, displaying some extremely slick handling.
article_snippet.sent: Noakes then rewarded a period of pressure from Irish to kick Noakes second penalty as it was now the turn of the visitors, to make the elementary errors.
article_snippet.sent: Sale were also conceding a number of penalties at the scrum area and from one of these, Noakes should have put Irish further ahead but Noakes attempt was off target.
article_snippet.sent: Sale took immediate advantage when Haley outflanked the Irish cover defence to score a well-created try.
article_snippet.sent: With the last kick of the half, Noakes attempted a penalty from inside Noakes own half.
article_snippet.sent: Noakes fell short but for some inexplicable reason, Noakes chose to run the ball from within Noakes own 22 and Noakes pass to Haley was fumbled by the full back.
article_snippet.sent: The wing again outflanked the home cover but the scoring pass from Haley looked suspiciously forward.
article_snippet.sent: Noakes kicked Noakes second penalty to set up a tense finish but Sale continued to make mistakes at crucial times as Irish held on.