London Welsh's plight at the bottom of the Aviva Premiership worsened as they were soundly beaten 52-12 by a rampant Sale Sharks side this afternoon.

Welsh took the lead inside the opening five minutes when Rob Lewis capitalised on a quickly-taken penalty and ran in under the posts, but it was a false start for the home side, who then conceded five unanswered first-half tries.

Mike Haley ran in down the left before Tommy Taylor crashed over after the Sharks had stolen the Welsh scrum.

A mazy run from Will Addison rounded off a flowing team move before Taylor went over for his second score, and Chris Cusiter's smart interception set up Tom Arscott to touch down on the stroke of half time.

Arscott extended Sale's lead further with his second try four minutes after the restart, latching onto Haley's chip kick, but Welsh were back on the scoreboard when Tonga forward Opeti Fonua went over.

However, it was little more than a consolation for Justin Burnell's side, who were punished further when veteran winger Mark Cueto picked off a pass and ran home from deep inside Sharks territory.

In the final seconds, Addison grabbed his second try to wrap up the game and leave Welsh anchored to the bottom of the Premiership table.