SALE Sharks hopes of qualification for next season's European Champions Cup were dealt a blow as they lost 25-23 to London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

Sale still remain in seventh position but they lost ground on most of their rivals and have only themselves to blame for this disappointing result as they made too many critical errors.

Irish scored three tries through Alex Lewington (two) and Andrew Fenby with Chris Noakes adding two penalties and two conversions.

Tom Arscott scored a brace of tries for Sale as Mike Haley claimed the other with Danny Cipriani kicking two penalties and a conversion.

It had started so well for the Sharks as the hosts made some simple errors and Cipriani created an overlap providing Arscott for the easiest of run-ins.

Irish missed an early opportunity for points by declining to take a kickable penalty and Steve Diamond's men were moving the ball at every opportunity, displaying some extremely slick handling.

Noakes kicked two penalties to edge in front after the first quarter.

On the half-hour mark Irish prop Tom Court was sent to the bin for dragging down the driving line-out.

Sale took immediate advantage when Haley outflanked the Irish cover defence to score a well-created try.

But, the home side had the final say in the half when Fenby raced clear after an error by Haley and Irish enjoyed a 13-10 interval lead.

Prop Court returned from his 10 minute spell on the sidelines but Irish were soon back down to 14 men when Blair Cowan was yellow carded for a deliberate offside with Cipriani making no mistake with the resulting kick to tie up the scores.

Sale took further advantage of Cowan's absence to score their third try and Arscott's second.

Irish fought back and they appeared to have scored when a driving maul crashed over the visitors' line but the television match official was unable to confirm the grounding.

The Sharks were then down to 14 men after Chris Cusiter was yellow carded which give Irish a chance to score their second through Lewington.

The flurry of yellow cards in the game continued when Topsy Ojo was sent to the sidelines for dangerous play but Irish overcame this setback when Lewington added his second of the afternoon. Noakes converted to give Irish a 25-20 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Fly-half Cipriani kicked his second penalty to set up a tense finish but Sale were punished for making mistakes.