A review of Saturday's action in the Anglo-Welsh Cup, including Northampton's dramatic win at Sale.
Sale 20-24 Northampton
Nafi Tuitavake scored in the last minute to put Northampton in pole position to qualify from Pool 3 of the Anglo-Welsh Cup following a 24-20 triumph over Sale at the AJ Bell Stadium.
With the teams making alterations for this encounter, the match unsurprisingly took a while to get going, but when it did the Greater Manchester outfit were the ones to initially profit.
Sam Moore touched down after 30 minutes to move Sale into the lead before Will Addison scored a penalty on the stroke of half-time.
Northampton responded, however, and two brilliantly worked efforts from Ken Pisi and Ben Nutley moved them into a 14-8 advantage.
Despite that setback, the Sharks were not done and Luke James reduced the arrears.
James Grayson added a penalty for the Saints, but the hosts appeared to have secured the victory through Marc Jones' late try.
There was one last sting in the tail, though, and Tuitavake won the game for Northampton.
London Irish 66-7 Wasps
Joe Cokanasiga scored a hat-trick as London Irish roared to their first Anglo-Welsh Cup win in three attempts this season and left Wasps' chances of qualifying for the semi-finals hanging by a thread after the 66-7 rout.
Wing Alex Lewington, scrum-half Scott Steele, wing Cokanasiga, prop Ollie Hoskins and full-back James Marshall all scored first-half tries as Irish grabbed a bonus point, with Wasps replying through a try from full-back Nick Foster, converted by fly-half Jacob Umaga.
And Irish put it out of sight in the second period as replacements Saia Fainga'a and Piet van Zyl crossed for further tries. Marshall converted five times, and replacement Tommy Bell got three.
Cokanasiga got two more tries, with Aseli Tikoirotuma adding another in the final 10 minutes.
Bath 21-8 Newcastle
Bath remained on top of Anglo-Welsh Cup Pool 1 with a 21-8 win over Newcastle Falcons at the Rec.
Converted second-half tries from Paul Grant, Nathan Charles and Jack Wilson were enough to end the visitors' eight-match winning streak in cups this season.
Saracens 40-21 Dragons
Three tries in 10 first-half minutes helped Saracens to an impressive 40-21 Anglo-Welsh Cup victory over the Dragons at Allianz Park.
The hosts scored six tries in a comfortable win, their first in the competition this season, with the speedy Nick Tompkins leading the charge before the break.
They secured a bonus point in the second half, although the Dragons hit back through two tries from prop Lloyd Fairbrother.
Harlequins 35-7 Scarlets
Scrum-half Dave Lewis inspired Harlequins to a 35-7 win over Scarlets and helped his side put one foot into the semi-finals of the Anglo-Welsh Cup.
Lewis, who joined Quins from Exeter at the start of the season, scored once and had a hand in two other tries as his side made it three from three in the tournament.
Henry Cheeseman, Archie White, James Lang and Ross Chisholm also crossed as their side moved to within a point of the last four.
Quins head to Northampton in the final round next week whilst Chiefs, in second and five points back, entertain Saracens.
Worcester 31-21 Exeter
Worcester beat Exeter for the first time since 2004 with a bonus point victory at Sixways to keep their Anglo-Welsh Cup hopes alive.
After 12 consecutive defeats at the hands of the Chiefs, the far more experienced Warriors made hard work of subduing their opponents after giving them a 14-point start.
Josh Adams scored two of their tries in the 31-21 success, with Luke Baldwin, Tom Howe and David Denton getting one each and Jamie Shillcock converting three.
Exeter, whose qualification for the next round is now out of their hands, responded with tries from Shaun Malton, Tom Lawday and Harry Strong, with Joe Simmonds adding three conversions.
Leicester 24-12 Cardiff Blues
Holders Leicester Tigers kept their Anglo-Welsh Cup hopes alive with a 24-12 victory over Cardiff Blues in a scrappy game at Welford Road.
Leicester's second win in three games in Pool Four was only their second in 10 games in all competitions and they scored three tries through Will Evans, Jordan Olowofela and Luke Hamilton, with Joe Ford kicking nine points.
Jack Roberts and Lewis Jones scored for Cardiff and yellow cards were shown to Blues prop Corey Domachowski and Leicester lock Joe Maksymiw.
