And the damage on the scoreboard could have been even worse if the normally dead-eyed World Cup winning Wilkinson had packed his kicking boots.

He did kick four penalty goals in the 16th, 36th, 51st and 75th minutes but he had a similar number of misses with two penalty goals, a conversion and a drop goal attempt.

Danny Cipriani had a similar strike rate for the Sharks with two out of four penalty goals finding the mark, Sale not having a single second half scoring chance with the boot.

Left wing David Smith crossed for the only try of a tight contest after half an hour but only magnificent defensive work by Rob Miller denied replacement Sebastien Tillous-Borde a second try for the visitors with the last action of the match.