Marcus Smith impressed as Harlequins crushed Premiership leaders Sale 36-3.

Smith's kick set up Tyrone Green's first-half try and he also kicked a penalty as Quins led 10-3 at the break.

The number 10 set up Danny Care's try after the break before a Sam Riley score and two Will Joseph tries completed the win.

Sale remain top of the Premiership but Quins are now second and one point behind. Saracens, Bath and Exeter all have the chance to go above the Sharks should they win on Saturday.

With England boss Steve Borthwick watching on a freezing night in Twickenham it was Smith who starred out of the two prospective successors to Farrell - his ninth-minute kick was mishandled by Joe Carpenter on the left wing and Green gathered the fumble before coasting in for the opening try.

The Premiership leaders struggled under the high ball and another mistake by Carpenter allowed the field position which led to a Smith penalty kick 13 minutes later before Ford missed a three-pointer from 42 metres soon after.

Ford finally got on the scoreboard with the final kick of the half having seen the hosts superbly defend 16 attacking phases, including 10 on their own line.

But Smith needed only two minutes of the second half to impress again - his dummy and jinking run through the Sale line set up Care to go in under the posts.

Sale had Arron Reed sin-binned nine minutes into the second period and were lucky not to be down to 13 men after Jonny Hill pushed Chandler Cunningham-South through the advertising hoardings and pinned him down on the ground.

But from the penalty Quins kicked to the corner and Riley peeled off the maul from the resulting line-out for their third try.

Sale's night was summed up soon after as they were turned over five metres from the home line in a rare venture into the Harlequins red zone, and on the hour Smith was again involved in the bonus-point try.

His cross-field kick to the left wing set Caden Murley away - he exchanged passes with Green before putting Joseph through to cap a flowing passing move.

Having suffered a 43-0 reversal at Exeter in October, a second big away loss for Sale in their past three road trips was completed seven minutes from the end when Joseph went over in the left corner after 11 phases on the Sale line.

Harlequins: Green; David, Joseph, Esterhuizen, Murley; Smith, Care; Marler, Riley, Lewis, Launchbury, Lamb, Cunningham-South, W Evans, Dombrandt (capt).

Replacements: Jibulu, Baxter, Chawatama, Herbst, Chisholm, Porter, J Evans, Beard.

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, R du Preez, Bedlow, Reed; Ford, Warr; McIntyre, Cowan-Dickie, Schonert, Wiese, Hill, van Rhyn, B Curry (capt), D du Preez.

Replacements: Creevy, Harrison, Opoku-Fordjour, Beaumont, Dugdale, Quirke, James, O'Flaherty.

Referee: Luc Ramos