Sale ended their barren run in style to secure a home semi-final in the Powergen Cup.

The Sharks revelled in the snow at Edgeley Park, sweeping aside a poor Saracens outfit to claim their first win in seven matches and set up a clash with Leeds or Bath in a fortnight's time.

The decision of popular coach Jim Mallinder to sign a new three-year contract appeared to breathe new life into the Manchester club, whose season was in danger of disintegrating amid heavy defeats and rumours of unrest.

Magnificently led by Pete Anglesea, starting his first match of the season, the Sharks bossed the show from the fourth minute when impressive fly-half Mike Hercus got Steve Hanley romping through a gap for his fellow winger Mark Cueto to score the first try.

Mallinder's men dominated the line-out and were rock solid in the scrum to give Hercus all the time he needed to keep the visitors penned inside their own half for most of the first half.

Chris Jones and Jason White, back-row opponents in the Calcutta Cup a week ago, were an effective combination in the second row while Alex Sanderson gave another example of how much he will be missed if, as expected, he joins Saracens for next season. If he was miffed at losing the captaincy, it certainly did not show.

Sale were also boosted by the mercurial presence of Jason Robinson, who produced the occasional touch of wizardry from full-back, while Hercus demonstrated vision and some sublime handling skills to outshine the subdued Thomas Castaignede.

Sarries were unable to make much headway against the fired-up Sharks forwards and, once they were rocked by Cueto's early try, Hercus punished their lack of discipline with two penalties to keep the scoreboard ticking over.

It was all one-way traffic in the first half and Magnus Lund and Jones both fluffed easy tryscoring chances as their colds hands let them down before centre Jos Baxendell went 60 metres after intercepting a pass by Taine Randell for the second touchdown.

Hercus extended Sale's lead to 23-0 before Castaignede scored Saracens' only points with a penalty and, although the visitors were at least able to mount a period of sustained attack in the second half, the only other scoring came from the boot of Hercus, who took his goal tally to six from eight attempts.