SALE Sharks were made to pay the penalty as Danny Cipriani missed a drop goal and another three-point opportunity to lose 16-14 to Harlequins at the Stoop.

It was a rather scrappy opening to the game, with scrums and lineouts dominating the first six minutes, however Sam James created the first moment of magic, as he crashed on to a Tuitupou ball and broke into the Quins 22.

He tried to offload to Danny Cipriani, but the fly half couldn't hang on and knocked the ball on.

The Sharks were dominating proceedings early on, with half-backs Cipriani and Peter Stringer orchestrating the game, but the hosts' defence kept the visitors out.

But Steve Diamond's men took the lead when skipper Dan Braid took full advantage of Tim Visser's error and touched down after 19 minutes which Cipriani converted.

On the half-hour, the Sharks earned a penalty from a scrum 3m inside of the Quins half, but England international Cipriani's kick was missed after he slipped.

Sale continued to create chances and could have been on the scoresheet yet again but with the tryline begging TJ Ioane ran into his own team-mate and conceded a scrum.

From this moment on, the Sharks gave away three quick back-to-back penalties which led the chance for Quins to score their first points of the game through Nick Evans. It was 3-7 after 36 minutes.

Quins had all the ascendency heading into the half-time interval, and earned a further penalty as the Sharks were pinged on halfway.

With the last kick of the first half, Nick Evans dragged his kick wide of the posts which left the scores 3-7 at the break.

The rejuvenated hosts reduced the deficit to a point with another Evans penalty.

Quins had all the momentum following the kick, pressing into the Sharks 22, and they got a deserved try through Tim Visser.

The Scotsman was stood alone on the left wing, which fly-half Nick Evans spotted and the All-Black kicked to the winger and he dotted down.

Evans got the conversion to make it 13-7.

They got a further penalty from Evans, as the Sharks were penalised at the scrum and Quins led 16-7 after 55 minutes.

Sale rallied, and got back into it when Sam James crashed his way over from close range, scoring his second try in two weeks. Cipriani got the conversion to make it 16-14 with 12 minutes to go.

Heading into the final 10 minutes, the Sharks looked for the all important next score and they gained that opportunity in the 72nd minute when they were awarded a penalty.

Unfortunately, Cipriani dragged his kick wide to leave the scores as they were.

The Sharks went on the hunt once more, and with the time dead on the clock, Cipriani attempted a drop goal – but it went wide and out of play which secured Quins the all-important win.

Sharks: Mike Haley, Tom Arscott, Sam James, Sam Tuitupou (Johnny Leota, 40), Nev Edwards, Danny Cipriani, Peter Stringer, Ross Harrison (James Flynn, 76), Tommy Taylor (Neil Briggs, 55), 3. Vadim Cobilas (Brian Mujati, 46), 4. Jonathan Mills (Andrei Ostrikov, 55), 5. Bryn Evans, 6. Dan Braid © (Magnus Lund, 44), 7. TJ Ioane, 8. Josh Beaumont