SALE guaranteed a top two place in National 3 North after this committed and at times ill-tempered 44-25 win at Wirral.

The hosts had the better of territory in the opening stages despite playing against an almost gale force wind, and it wasn’t until the 20th minute that the first points were scored. Wirral were penalised and Liam McGovern secured a penalty from 38 metres.

Two minutes later a fracas on midway ended with Wirral’s James Annett's red carded for foul play and Sale’s Joe Kelly yellow carded in the same incident. Sale extended their lead with a try from Jonathan Keep converted by McGovern for a 10-0 lead but within minutes Wirral’s Craig Harvey barged over from close range and also added the conversion.

The home side were penalised in their 22 and McGovern added a second penalty before Jack Moorhouse received a yellow card and with the arrival of half time, a six point lead was deemed insufficient, given that the home side would have the benefit of the wind in the second period.

Three minutes into the half home winger Ali Baker scored in the corner, and a minute later Rob Pearl touched down and Harvey added the conversion to put Wirral 19-13 in front.

Sale now needed to start a come back and they did so superbly. Two tries from Chris Mayor in the space of six minutes both converted by McGovern sandwiched a Harvey penalty for Wirral but crucially had given Sale a 27-22 lead.

Moving into the final 10 minutes Neary touched down following a fine break by McGovern, but Harvey added a second penalty before Moorhouse finished a Sale move with a try wide out. There was still time for Ciaran Connolly to split the Wirral defence for Sale’s sixth try and McGovern rounded off proceedings with a well struck conversion.

The league title now comes down to the last day of the season when league leaders Sandal, one point ahead of Sale, come to Heywood Road this Saturday in what could be a fine advert for rugby in the North.