Two last gasp tries handed Sale Sharks a flattering 23-11 victory over London Irish in the Zurich Premiership on Sunday.

Despite a massive seven places separating the two sides in the league table, London Irish matched second-placed Sale with ease - but late tries from Iain Fullarton and Andy Titterrell gave the visitors the victory.

But at the beginning it looked like it could have been a very different story, with Michael Horak giving Irish the perfect start with a fifth-minute try.

Immediately they had put the Sharks under pressure with captain Bryan Redpath's clearance kick blocked dangerously close to their try line.

Irish made the most of their lineout and after a catch and drive the ball was cycled out wide by Barry Everitt, setting up Horak. Everitt missed the conversion.

Sale gradually regained their composure and after just missing out on a 25th-minute try England fly-half Charlie Hodgson successfully landed a penalty.

Consequently the visitors turned the tables and put the pressure on the Exiles and despite failing to score a try in the first half Hodgson crucially gave his side the lead with an injury time penalty.

The tempo did not change after the restart. Again Sale had the upper hand putting London Irish on the back foot and their hard work paid off when Redpath cleverly flicked the ball inside to winger Steve Hanley.

But with Hodgson missing the conversion London Irish had no intentions of giving up and rallied with two penalties from the boot of full-back Mark Mapletoft levelling the scores at 11-11 in the 72nd minute.

Hodgson then missed a dropped goal before Fullarton caught Irish on the hop, breaking through the line unchallenged to score.

Hodgson converted the effort, then hooker Titterrell added insult to injury with his 82nd-minute try.