Wasps sent flying as leaders Sale go on the rampage

Wasps 21 Sale 4

There is no getting away from the fact that Sale are here to be taken seriously. Forty-point victories in west London are rare enough in themselves; even less common is the sight of Wasps being run off their feet by a visiting side playing a quick, multi-dimensional and thoroughly modern style of rugby. The northerners opened many pairs of eyes with their performance at Loftus Road – not least those of Clive Woodward, the England manager – and as Charlie Hodgson converted Jason Robinson's wrap-up try with the last kick of the match, it was difficult to argue with their status as Premiership pace-setters.

Hodgson's own contribution was worth 23 points and the young outside-half might have had more. He bossed this match with considerable confidence and frequently threatened the Wasps line with a show of the ball and low-slung scuttle. He also kicked beautifully. When the Londoners started chasing the game hard after half-time – mainly through the excellent Simon Shaw – Hodgson kept the ship afloat with a series of major-league clearances.

Sale bring more to the party than some youthful bravura at stand-off, though. Take Mark Cueto, for example. Mark who? It may be a good question now, but the answer will not be long in coming. The new right wing from Cumbria, a graduate from the under-21 ranks, scored a sensational second-half try and generally gave the experienced Kenny Logan lots of trouble. Cueto threatened early in the first half with a useful chip-and-chase routine, and then put his name in lights a minute after the interval by fielding a poor pass from Hodgson, slipping away from Martyn Wood on a flat run across field and outstripping the Wasps' cover to score in Josh Lewsey's tackle.

There were plus points up front, too, as the new Sale recruits found the groove. Iain Fullarton, the super-athletic Scottish lock, reduced the Londoners' line-out to a heap of shambolic misery, while Stu Pinkerton nailed Wasp after Wasp in open field – most notably Joe Worsley, just as the No 8 looked certain to maximise a 30-metre break in the opening minutes. But it was Kevin Yates, fit and feisty after two seasons of Super 12 rugby with the Wellington Hurricanes, who surely interested Woodward.

Yates was hardly a picture of front-row health when he left England in 1999, the debilitating effects of a notorious ear-biting scandal still weighing upon his scrummager's shoulders. Two years on, he is again at one with the world. He coped well enough with the technical problems posed by Will Green in the tight, set up any number of attacking rucks with his powerful driving and even chipped in with a classy pass or two, just as he once did at Bath. Woodward has options at loose head as he prepares for England's Six Nations match in Dublin – Graham Rowntree of Leicester is piling pressure on Jason Leonard – but Yates' return is a bonus.

Three Logan penalties kept Wasps in touch during a first half dominated by their opponent's attacking invention, which bore fruit in the shape of a Dan Harris try on 17 minutes. Cueto, aided and abetted by Hodgson's kicking, took the visitors to 24-9, and despite a close-range finish from Craig Dowd and a fortuitous run-in from Fraser Waters, Sale finished the stronger. No one in leafy Cheshire imagines that the Premiership silverware will end up at Heywood Road, but on this evidence at least, those with more realistic title pretensions can expect a hurry-up.

Scorers: Wasps: Tries Dowd, Waters; Conversion Logan; Penalties Logan 3. Sale: Tries Harris, Cueto, Robinson; Conversions Hodgson 2; Penalties Hodgson 6; Drop goal Hodgson.

Wasps: S Roiser; J Lewsey, F Waters, M Denney (capt), K Logan; M Leek, M Wood; C Dowd (D Molloy 57), T Leota, W Green, J Beardshaw (M McCarthy 73), S Shaw, R Jenkins, C Allan, J Worsley.

Sale: J Robinson; M Cueto, M Shaw (J Baxendell 42), D Harris, S Hanley; C Hodgson, B Redpath (capt); K Yates, A Titterrell (B Jackman 78), S Turner, I Fullarton, S Lines (A Sanderson 29), A Perelini (S Lines 61), S Pinkerton, P Anglesea.

Referee: A Spreadbury (Somerset).