England’s Marcus Smith led the way with a 24-point individual haul as 2021 Premiership champions Harlequins ended Sale’s unbeaten start to the season.

Sale briefly led when Sam James’ try was followed by two Rob du Preez kicks.

But, having led 17-10 at the break, Quins then outkicked their hosts.

Sale’s hopes of starting the season with a sixth straight Premiership win were ended by a dominant performance backed up by Smith’s boot, as he kicked four second-half penalties to just one more from du Preez, as Quins earned only their third win of the campaign.

The visitors, beaten 27-19 at home by Leicester last week, made a great start when they scored the opening try in just the 10th minute.

Danny Care lofted a clever kick to the right corner into space and, although Nick David was brought down short of the line as he collected, the former Worcester winger had the momentum to roll his way over.

After Smith converted from the right touchline, centre James then responded well with Sale’s try just five minutes later, going in under the posts after full-back Joe Carpenter’s retaliatory kick chase down the right.

Du Preez added the equalising conversion and a penalty for a brief 10-7 lead. But that lasted just three minutes before Smith’s boot levelled it up again.

And Quins went in 17-10 ahead after they cashed in on late first-half pressure to score again through Smith, who took Care’s pass to dart in close to the posts.

From then on, with Quins the better side – and Smith marshalling his troops well – it was just a case of what the winning score would be.

And Smith’s haul of 12 points in each half matched his best on his 100th Premiership appearance as the 13-times capped England playmaker helped elevate his team to fifth in the table.

Who’s next?

Harlequins’ next fixture is Saturday’s home game with London Irish, while Sale return to action a day later at Saracens.

Unless third-placed Gloucester can beat Exeter heavily and pick up a bonus-point win on Friday, Sunday’s Sarries-Sale game will now be a meeting of first against second.

Sarries are out on their own on top of the table with the only 100% winning Premiership record.

Sale boss Alex Sanderson:

“We just gave Quins too many points. There’s not really that much more we need to do to create the chances, but we just need to finish them off.

“Our set-pieces need to be better too. And t’s clear our decision-making in attack needs to be much better. Couple that with more discipline in defence and not giving away as many penalty points, and that’s what went wrong.

“So far this season we’ve been operating with unflappable calmness in our play, but we didn’t see that. We’ll have a miserable Monday but we have to come back in on Tuesday now and get back on the horse.”

Harlequins coach Tabai Matson:

“Every time Marcus Smith goes away with England he seems to come back a better player, and that’s fantastic for us. He set a terrific example again.

“He measures the tempo and keeps control, and he keeps the scoreboard ticking over. To have 100 Premiership appearances under his belt at just 23 years of age is just ridiculous. He’s a great young player and he’s going to break lots of records.

“This is a great result. Sale has been a notoriously tough place for us to come over the years but we dug deep. We squeezed them at crucial points and though it wasn’t classic Quins rugby, we stopped a lot of Sale’s momentum at crucial times.”

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, S James, Tuilagi, O’Flaherty; R du Preez, Quirke; Rodd, Ashman, Schonert, Wiese, J Hill, Ross, T Curry, D du Preez.

Replacements: Taylor, McIntyre, Harper, Beaumont, du Preez, Warr, S Hill, Reed.

Harlequins: Allan; David, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Murley; M Smith, Care, Marler, Musk, Louw, Lamb, Herbst, Kenningham, Evans, White.

Replacements: Riley, Garcia Botta, Kerrod, Hammond, Jurevicius, Gjaltema, Edwards, Anyanwu.

Referee: Christophe Ridley (RFU)