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Your support makes all the difference.Wasps, businesslike and efficient, booked their place in the play-offs, though the comfort of home advantage will not be decided until next weekend, when they play Harlequins.
They were never in danger of defeat against Sale, who have played their last game at Heywood Road and will move during the summer to Edgeley Park to share with Stockport County.
Sale must win at Saracens on Saturday if they are to have any chance of making the Twickenham showdown at the end of the month.
Sale were always going to struggle for primary possession against a Wasps pack with a distinct advantage in weight if not height. On a pitch made treacherous by incessant rain, the home side were not much better off in the contest for the loose ball. They spent most of the first half trapped in their own half as Lawrence Dallaglio and his muscular cohorts squeezed the life out of the home pack. Wasps' front row of Craig Dowd, Trevor Leota and Will Green are a match for any in the land, and were in compelling form.
Sale, who had not lost at home in the Premiership since Leicester won here in November 2001, were unable to find the room to put any width on their game and had to make do with two penalties by their outside-half, Jos Baxendell, but they never looked as if they were going to score a try.
In the conditions, Wasps played it just about right. Dallaglio, Joe Worsley and Simon Shaw drove mercilessly for position, forcing Sale to defend for long periods. But the Sharks did frustrate Wasps with the force of their tackling, and twice the game reached boiling point as Dallagliio and his rival captain, Bryan Redpath, went head-to-head after Iain Fullarton and Dowd were involved in some fisticuffs. But the relentless pressure eventually told as Dallaglio slipped Baxendell's unconvincing tackle for Rob Howley to cross for the only try of the half. Alex King's conversion, added to his solitary penalty, made it 10-6 and there it stayed until the interval.
Within five minutes of the restart, Baxendell had reduced the deficit to a point, with his third penalty, but King then restored and improved Wasps' advantage with a couple of penalties as the game, like the conditions, deteriorated. Sale, much as they tried, were unable to make anything from the sin-binning of Leota. Wasps had done enough.
Sale: V Going (A Elliott, 76); M Cueto, J Robinson, G Bond, S Hanley; J Baxendell, B Redpath (capt); K Yates, A Titterrell, B Stewart, D Schofield, I Fullarton (P Davies, 64) P Anglesea (Davies, 14-20), S Pinkerton, C Jones.
Wasps: M van Gisbergen; J Lewsey, F Waters, S Abbott, J Rudd; A King, R Howley; C Dowd (A McKenzie, 14-20), T Leota (P Greening, 77), W Green, S Shaw, R Birkett, J Worsley, P Volley (Greening, 70-77), L Dallaglio (capt).
Referee: R Maybank (Kent).
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