French international Thomas Castaignede pricked Sale's bubble with a 19-point haul as Saracens took over second place in the Premiership.

The dashing full-back, a constant menace with his pace and unpredictability, scored two tries and kicked four goals in a one-sided encounter at Heywood Road that cruelly exposed Sale's deficiencies.

While Sarries successfully followed up their impressive win over champions Leicester, the Manchester club were left to reflect on a disappointing performance highlighted by desperate weaknesses in their set-piece play.

Sale lost no fewer than eight of their own line-outs, and Saracens - the Premiership's leading scorers - gratefully accepted the gifted possession, firstly to wear down the home side's resistance and then to run them ragged with eight tries.

Six of Sarries' tries came during one-way traffic in the second half as Sale, their hopes lifted to new heights by four wins in their opening five matches, miserably failed their biggest test of the season.

Sale dominated the early exchanges, and stand-off Niki Little had an eighth-minute try disallowed for obstruction - but they paid for their weakness in the line-outs.

With fly-half Duncan McRae dictating matters in midfield, Sarries gradually began to gain the initiative - and it was his darting run that paved the way for the opening try on 28 minutes, Castaignede taking a long pass from prop Paul Wallace to cross the line.

Both creative backs were then involved in a superb crossfield move four minutes later to get winger Brett Sparg over, and Castaignede - who missed with his first two shots at goal - eased his side into a 12-3 lead.

Little, who had opened the scoring with a 15th-minute penalty, added a second just before the break to give his side hope. But their cause was not helped by the sin-binning of hooker Joe Clark for an off-the-ball incident on 34 minutes.

Sale kept replacement hooker Bernie Jackman on following Clark's 10 minutes in the sin bin, but their problems in the line-out continued.

Another weaving run from Castaignede took him past two wrong-footed defenders, and second row Scott Murray was in support to score. Castaignede added the conversion and then kicked a 47th-minute penalty to stretch his side's lead to an unassailable 22-6.

With their confidence flowing over, Saracens used the width of the pitch to hammer home their superiority - with McRae crossing wide out for a fourth try which secured the bonus point.

Still they were not finished, however, with Castaignede following up his own kick to claim his second try and Bill Davidson, Paul Wallace and Gerald Arasa adding further touchdowns as Sale crumbled alarmingly.

The only blot on the horizon for Francois Pienaar's men was the goalkicking of Castaignede, who missed five attempts before handing over the responsibility to Sparg who hit one from two.