• Premiership: Bath 40-13 Sale
• Hosts score six tries before red card apiece

Bath on a glowing autumnal afternoon is not an unpleasant place to be unless, these days, you happen to be the opposition. Sale travelled to the South West desperate to prove a point after last weekend’s thrashing by Northampton but were overwhelmed by Bath’s slick, muscular approach in attack and defence.

Johann van Graan’s ever-improving outfit move top, at least until Saracens face Leicester, after the impressive South Africa prop Thomas du Toit created a try and scored another. Will Muir and the captain, Miles Reid, also crossed the whitewash in the first half before Ted Hill, Tom Carr-Smith and Francois van Wyk completed what became another rout for Sale. Will Butt of Bath and Sale’s Nye Thomas were sent off in the second half, both for dangerous tackles, but neither decision impacted the result.