Sale Sharks secured a bonus-point win against Wasps to climb above them in the Premiership table.

Sale's Marland Yarde and Rohan Janse van Rensburg made it 19-8 at half time.

Ben Curry scored his side's fourth try for the bonus point after the restart and while Jimmy Gopperth went over as a consolation, an impressive Sale defence proved largely impenetrable.

Sale climb to ninth in the table, while Wasps drop to 10th, with both sides on 24 points.

Sale's past two games have been called off, including their league fixture against Newcastle on 26 December, and they have played just once in the Premiership since their win over Northampton on 6 November.

However there was little sign of rustiness over the 80 minutes.

Wasps, who beat London Irish on Boxing Day, took only three minutes to score, working the ball left across midfield from a line-out, for Bassett on the wing to run over in the corner for his first league try of the season.

Sale went in front shortly after, fooling the Wasps defence from the scrum with a dummy run before Du Preez crossed from close range.

A Gopperth penalty edged Wasps back ahead by a point but it was short lived, as Yarde dived over in the left corner thanks to quick hands from AJ MacGinty from the restart.

Van Rensburg powered over for Sale's third inside 30 minutes, after their driving maul got within sight of the line.

The home side almost had the bonus point wrapped up before half-time but while the maul drove the ball over in the corner on 35 minutes, Robert du Preez was judged to have joined it too early from the line-out and it was ruled out for offside.

Curry picked up where Sale left off immediately in the second half, cleverly collecting the ball from a long line-out throw to score their fourth and make it 26-8.

It sealed Sale's first bonus point since 9 October in their defeat by Gloucester.

Gopperth kicked a penalty to reduce the gap to 15 points, but whenever the Wasps attack broke over the Sale 22m line, it came to nothing on the scoreboard as the home defence pushed them back.

With Coenie Oosthuizen sent to the sin bin late on, Gopperth pulled a consolation try back for Wasps as the clock ticked into red, but it was not enough to stop them being condemned to their fifth away defeat this season.

Sale: L. James; McGuigan, R. du Preez, Van Rensburg, Yarde; MacGinty, Cliff; Rood, Ashman, Schonert, JL. du Preez, De Jager, Ross, B. Curry, D. du Preez

Replacements: Taylor, Mcintyre, Oosthuizen, Postlethwaite, Dugdale, Warr, S. James, Roebuck

Sin bin: Oosthuizen (74)

Wasps: Crossdale; Hougaard, Spink, Le Bourgeois, Bassett; Gopperth, Wolstenholme; West, Frost, Alo, Fifita, Stooke, Shields (c), Carr, Barbeary

Replacements: Cruse, Hislop, Toomaga-Allen, Cardall, Willis, Porter, Atkinson, Miller

Referee: Ian Tempest