Sale hail Cipriani as Tigers tamed in English Premiership
Danny Cipriani was praised by Sale coach Steve Diamond after guiding the Sharks to a 27-20 win over Leicester in the English Premiership on Sunday.
The fly-half, in a match briefly halted in the second minutes for thunder and lightning, crowned a fine all-round display with a late try.
Former Melbourne stand-off Cipriani will leave Sale at the end of the season to return to Premiership rivals Wasps, the club where he made his name, as he bids to revive his England career.
He helped northwest club Sale maintain their unbeaten home record when, with the scores tied at 20-20 with 11 minutes remaining, he weaved his way over the line and also kicked 12 points with the boot.
"Danny saw the gap and took it and scored a brilliant try to be fair," said Diamond. "His goal-kicking was great, his defence was good and it was a complete performance by him really.
"Danny sees his future elsewhere and it has been written about for months now, so good on him.
"The good thing was that we had a sit down and he wants to get us as high up in the league as he can.
"You saw in his performance today that he doesn't look like a lad who wants to leave."
Leicester boss Richard Cockerill said of the stoppage: "The television match official decided it was a health-and-safety risk, which is a bit bizarre really in a contact sport."
Defeat left Leicester fifth in the table and Cockerill added: "It's the game we needed to win, really. It's a game we haven't.
"We'll take the point and we live to fight another day, but I think that takes our top-two ambitions out of the equation and you're fighting for top four."
Northampton returned to the top four on Sunday with a 29-23 win at home to Harlequins.
"We were pleased to defend the lead and come away with five points," said Jim Mallinder, the Northampton director of rugby.
This was Quins' first match since coach Conor O'Shea, who had already announced he was leaving the club at the end of the season, was confirmed as Italy's new boss.
The result left Harlequins in sixth place, with only the top four sides at the end of the regular season qualifying for the play-offs.
"We can't control anything ourselves now. We've just got to do a job against Newcastle next week and keep on playing to the best of our ability," said O'Shea.
Newcastle remained one place above bottom-of-the-table London Irish after a 34-20 home defeat by Wasps.
Newcastle coach Dean Richards was left frustrated by referee JP Doyle after the official ruled out tries from Simon Hammersley and Nili Latu.
"I'm more disappointed than angry -- bitterly disappointed in fact," said former England No 8 Richards.
"We seem to have to be whiter than white and even then other sides seem to get away with it. There is a complete lack of confidence in the standard of refereeing at this time."
Wasps coach Dai Young was just happy to see his third-placed side come away with a win.
"The result at this stage of the season is probably more important than the style," he said.