Sale's Guinness Premiership title hopes have suffered a setback after they were deducted one point for fielding an unregistered player. The Sharks had failed to re-register David Ward after the hooker's loan spell at Manchester before including him on the bench for the Premiership game against Harlequins on 22 March.

The punishment means that Sale, who are lying fifth in the table and now five points behind fourth-placed London Irish, need a bonus-point victory at home to Northampton next weekend to stand any chance of qualifying for the play-offs. And even that will not be enough if London Irish get a result at Worcester.

The club was also fined £5,000 by a joint Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby disciplinary panel. The panel was chaired by the RFU disciplinary chief Judge Jeff Blackett and comprised the PRL chief executive, Mark McCafferty, and Jonathan Dance.

While accepting the potential impact of a points deduction, the panel concluded that "professionalism on the pitch must be matched by professionalism off it". The ruling explained that "even apparently small mistakes can have a dramatic effect on the reputation of the overall product".

Four previous cases of administrative errors were taken into account, all of which resulted in clubs being deducted at least one point. The panel decided to commute the penalty from two points to one in order to "reflect the club's responsible attitude in their response to the RFU".