DIRECTOR of rugby Steve Diamond hailed the impact of Sale Sharks' wing wizards Denny Solomona and Marland Yarde after Saturday's fine 34-25 Premiership win at Northampton.

It was the Sharks' first success at Franklin's Gardens in 12 years and fired the club back into the mix for a top-six finish with five games of the season remaining.

In a sensational first-half performance, England winger Solomona scored a thrilling hat-trick to follow his brace at Bath the previous weekend, with Red Rose colleague Yarde also scoring a brilliant try to help Sale open up a 31-6 half-time lead.

Though Northampton staged a ferocious second-half fightback with Sale also picking up two yellow cards, the Sharks deservedly held on to secure their third league away win of the campaign.

Diamond told the club's website: "We are delighted with the win. We flew out of the blocks and were pretty good first half.

"They got their act together at half time and made it difficult for us in the second half but I think we thoroughly deserved the win.

"We talked all week about putting a performance in and, fair play to the lads, they really delivered in that first half.

"Denny has just signed a four-year contract with us, as have a lot of other lads which will be announced over the next few weeks, and we've got a real rock-solid foundation.

"Denny is fantastic. I knew when I first met him he would score tries and he's getting better every week.

"Marland has now really settled in too and I'm really pleased for him.

"You can see that he has really settled in here in Manchester and he made a couple of really good decisions throughout the game as well as scoring his try.

"It was a big win and keeps us up there in the table.

"We've been really disappointed over the past couple of weeks and were very frustrated not to win at Bath last weekend and got out street-wised by Saracens the week before.

"So we talked all week in the build-up to Northampton about putting a performance in and I think we did that."