Sale Sharks broke their away duck to beat an injury-hit Wasps 32-25 in monsoon-like conditions at Adams Park yesterday.

Jim Mallinder, Sale's director of rugby, said: "It was shoddy at times but we deserved to win it."

Wasps fly-half Alex King opened the scoring with a fourth-minute penalty but Sale hit back with a penalty of their own from scrum-half Nick Walshe.

King pushed the home side ahead again with another penalty in the 14th minute and three minutes later he converted a touchdown by winger Shane Roiser.

Sale recovered within two points with another penalty from Walshe and a try from Dean Schofield and then overtook after the interval.

Tries from lock Chris Jones and wingers Steve Hanley and Mark Cueto were all converted by Walshe.

Fullback Nick Beal went over for two second half tries to clinch a winning bonus point as Northampton crushed Harlequins 35-7.

He crossed in the 43rd and 76th minutes to put Saints back on the winning path after successive defeats by top three sides Gloucester, Leicester and Leeds.

Northampton, despite missing seven men on international duty, went ahead after two minutes with a penalty from fly-half Paul Grayson. He also scored tries in the 18th and 24th minutes. Quins threatened briefly in the second half after Beal's first strike but were unable to penetrate a committed defence and Northampton duly pulled away again.

"We were never at the races," said Quins' director of rugby, Mark Evans. "That was our worst performance of the season."

Northampton's assistant coach Brendon Ratcliffe was pleased with the way his club's understudies had made of the most of the opportunities presented by international calls over the past month.

He said: "This was a season-defining game for us. The internationals come back into a squad which is on the front foot and are going to have to really work to earn their places."

In National Division One Rotherham went top by defeating previous leaders Worcester 38-13.

Vincent Clerc ran in two second-half tries as France scored a 35-3 victory over Canada in Paris. David Bory and Damien Traille also went over as Les Bleus set a winning seal on their Six Nations Grand Slam-winning year.

Australia ended their three-match European tour with a comfortable 34-3 win over Italy in Rome.