London Irish dragged into relegation zone

London Irish 6 Sale Sharks 9

“I don’t know how we lost today,” said O’Shea after a 9-6 home defeat to Sale.

“I haven’t seen us have as many try-scoring opportunities in a season and not have the calmness to finish things off.

“Sale were under strength today and I thought we out-played them for the majority of the match but we just couldn’t finish off our chances with place kicks or try-scoring opportunities.”

But O’Shea refused to pin the blame on goal-kicker Mark Mapletoft, who had a nightmare day, missing five penalties and two drop goal attempts.

“Tofty has bailed us out enough that you wouldn’t even point a finger at him.”