LONDON Irish bounced back to winning ways with a tense 25-23 come-from-behind win against Sale Sharks in the Aviva Premiership on Sunday.

Glenn Delaney’s side had suffered European heartbreak when dumped out of the Challenge Cup by Edinburgh a week before, but they hit back in style at the Madejski Stadium.

It was the visitors, though, who made a fast start, with Tom Arscott crossing the whitewash following an opening three minutes of intense Sharks pressure.

Chris Noakes – recalled at fly half in place of Shane Geraghty – cut the gap with a simple penalty on 20 minutes, and the Kiwi put his side in front with another three-pointer shortly after.

However, they suffered a setback when referee Greg Macdonald – who was heavily criticised by Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond after the game – sent Exiles prop Tom Court to the sin-bin seven minutes before the break.

The away side used their numerical advantage to put Mike Haley over, though England stand-off Danny Cipriani again missed the conversion to leave the score 10-6.

And London Irish stole a half-time lead when a handling error from the visitors allowed Andrew Fenby to pick up and sprint away for a try, Noakes converting to make it 13-10 at the break.

Blair Cowan followed Court to the sin-bin for handling on the floor four minutes into the second half, and Cipriani finally landed a kick to level the scores.

Sale went ahead six minutes later as a powerful rolling maul pre-empted the visitors spreading the ball wide for Arscott to grab a second score. Cipriani’s conversion made it 20-13 to the Sharks.

However, Irish responded well with wing Alex Lewington making good ground from the restart. After Sale infringed, Noakes kicked to the corner and Irish unleashed a powerful drive over the line. While the try was disallowed by the TMO, Chris Cusiter became the first Sale player to be yellow carded.

And after the hosts again went to the corner, Lewington received the ball to touch down before Noakes missed the conversion.

Topsy Ojo became the third Irish player to be sin-binned on 56 minutes, but Lewington’s 10th try of the league season – a brilliant solo effort – and Noakes’ conversion made it 25-20.

Cipriani landed another penalty to cut the gap to two points, but the visitors were unable to snatch victory as their top-six hopes took a major blow.

Irish solidified their position in 10th place ahead of a trip to Bath on Friday, April 24.

London Irish: Fenby, Ojo (Fowlie), Griffin, F. Mulchrone, Lewington, Noakes, Allinson (O’Leary), Court (Hagan), Paice (Stevens), Palframan (Aulika), Skivington, Rouse (Narraway), Sinclair, Cowan, Guest.

Sale: Haley, Arscott, Leota, Tuitupou, Cueto, Cipriani, Cusiter (Cliff), Harrison (Lewis-Roberts), Taylor (Mills), V. Cobilas, Ostrikov, Hines (Jones), Braid, Seymour (Lund), Beaumont.

Referee: Greg Macdonald.

Attendance: 5,755.