Jones remains positive as Sale's plummet continues

The Sharks suffered a 15-7 defeat – their eighth in a row in all competitions – at the hands of high-flying Northampton which, coupled with Leeds' victory over Saracens, sent them bottom of the Premiership table.

Jones felt a lack of a cutting edge had played a big part in his side's defeat, but is sure they are good enough to come through their relegation battle.

He said: "I have been at the club for six years. I have been at the top quite a bit of those six years fortunately. That's easy, it's now where you find out a lot about people. It's tough at the bottom of the league but I certainly believe if we keep raising the performance as we did today we will get out of this.

"If we win our game in hand against Wasps we will leapfrog up the table. The last thing we need to do is panic."

Northampton led 7-0 at the break thanks to Paul Diggin's try, converted by full-back Bruce Reihana, but could have been much further ahead as fly-half Stephen Myler missed four straightforward penalties. Charlie Hodgson and Lee Thomas failed with a penalty attempt apiece for the Sharks.

Chris Ashton then went over for a well-crafted try after the break and Shane Geraghty slotted a penalty to seal the win, before Ben Cohen got a late try for the home side and Hodgson missed a last-gasp penalty which would have given his side a losing bonus point.

Newcastle are a point ahead of Leeds after picking up a losing bonus in the defeat to Bath. The visitors scored two second-half tries to come back from 10-5 down and win 17-13 at Kingston Park. The game ended in controversy with the referee blowing for time with one minute and eight seconds still left on the scoreboard clock and Newcastle banging away at the Bath line before Bath turned it over and booted the ball dead.

David Walder scored 19 points as Wasps closed in on the Premiership's top four with a 24-19 home victory over Gloucester.

The former England fly-half scored a try which he converted and added four penalties. Gloucester battled back from

13-0 down to 16-16 only to be sunk by a late try.

Rory Clegg proved the perfect stand-in, hammering home a long-range penalty to hoist Harlequins clear of the Premiership's danger zone with a 14-11 defeat of Worcester.

At the top, Leicester Tigers defeated title rivals London Irish 35-19 but lost England fly-half Toby Flood to a bang on the head, although Richard Cockerill says he will be fit for England's trip to Scotland on Saturday.