SALE Sharks were made to pay for ill-discipline as the curtain came down on their season with a 44-16 defeat to Exeter Chiefs.

There was to be no swansong for Mark Cueto and Nathan Hines in their final matches in a Sharks shirt as Steve Diamond's side lost out in Devon despite being in the game up until the break.

But second-half yellow cards for Johnny Leota and Cueto gave Chiefs the space they needed and a late red for Ross Harrison was the final nail in the coffin.

The result meant the Sharks were unable to dislodge Wasps and move into sixth there was at least something to show for their efforts other than Josh Beaumont showing his potential with two brilliant tries.

Gareth Steenson kicked an early penalty then Ian Whitten crashed over for a try before Danny Cipriani reduced the arrears with two penalties.

Then Beaumont's moment of magic saw the visitors take a 11-8 lead.

The back-row collected the ball on the left wing and used his blistering pace to beat England back Jack Nowell to touchdown.

Sadly Cipriani just missed the conversion but the Chiefs battled back as Nowell made amends for his earlier error to regain the lead.

Just before the break, Tom Arcott's crossfield kick just bounced into touch as Cueto was lurking to try to score.

It was first blood to the Chiefs when Ben White scored a try but Beaumont bagged his second of the afternoon to make it 22-16.

Then came Leota's sin-binning and Exeter made the extra man count with Matt Jess scoring twice and another effort by Henry Slade saw the hosts pull away.

Cueto picked up his yellow card in the 71st minute for slapping the ball down as Exeter charged forward then things went from bad to worse when Ross Harrison was red carded for an altercation with Alex Brown.

Byron McGuigan scorched over the line for try number seven with Steenson missing the conversion.