Wasps won a pulsating London derby at Vicarage Road, defeating Saracens 40-29 in an 11 try thriller, while Sale Sharks trounced Newcastle 53-10 in a later kick-off.

Although Saracens opened the scoring with a try from Francisco Leonelli Morey, which Glen Jackson converted, Wasps roared back and had seemingly put the game out of sight when it was just over a quarter old.

By that time, Raphael Ibanez, Tom Voyce, Dominic Waldouck and Paul Sackey (pictured) had all gone over for tries which Danny Cipriani converted. Waldouck's second try on the brink of half-time appeared to be the final nail in Saracens' coffin.

Waldouck's first try was the highlight of the match - man-of-the-moment Cipriani dummied brilliantly, before gliding through the Saracens defence and passing to Waldouck who was left with an easy finish. Cipriani also single-handedly created Paul Sackey's score, sending over an inch-perfect cross kick to the unmarked England man.

When Wasps' Ireland scrum-half Eoin Reddan opened the second half scoring - racing 40 metres to go over in the corner - it looked as if the High Wycombe-based team were about to rack-up a cricket score.

Yet Reddan's try proved to be Wasps' final score, as Saracens attempted an unlikely comeback. Winger Lleonelli completed an excellent hat-trick, while speedster Richard Haughton and South African scrum-half Neil de Kock also went over, as Saracens scored 17 unanswered points.

Ultimately, the deficit proved too great for the home team, and they paid the price for sloppy defending in the first quarter of the match. That said, had Jackson not missed three conversions and a penalty, the result could have been much tighter.

The win was Wasps' eighth league win on the bounce, and their qualification for the end of season play-offs has an air of inevitability to it - they rise to third in the table, with a game in hand over their rivals.

Saracens are still in the Heineken Cup - they face Munster in the semi-finals - but this defeat effectively ends their Premiership campaign. They lie in eighth place, well clear of danger, but also well out of the running in the race for Heineken Cup spots.

In the later kick-off, Sale thrashed a young and inexperienced Newcastle team at Edgeley Park.

The Falcons, missing England quartet Johnny Wilkinson, Toby Flood, Jamie Noon and Matthew Tait, were forced to field an experimental team who struggled to match the organisation, physicality and pace of the Sharks team.

It took the Sharks just two minutes to break the deadlock, outside centre Chris Bell going over, and they had secured a bonus point for scoring four tries before the half was over, when Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe scored after 34 minutes.

Things got worse for the young Falcons in the second half. Although England Under-20 fly-half Rob Miller opened the scoring with a penalty, Sale continued to score freely, and by full-time had racked up a half-century of points. Fernandez Lobbe and Bell both grabbed second tries, while Will Cliff, on for England fly-half Charlie Hodgson, also scored.

Full-back Ben Foden, who is leaving for Northampton at the end of the season because of his desire to play at scrum-half, also capped a display of brilliant attacking running, with a 71st minute try.

The result was the Falcons' seventh successive defeat, in a season which has faltered badly. The Falcons' are safe from relegation, with Leeds marooned at the foot of the table, but have long since given up hope of reaching the Heineken Cup places.

The Sharks meanwhile, are in fifth place in the table and go into next week's crunch fixture with Harlequins knowing that a victory will lift them into the play-off positions.

Alex Dwiar / Eurosport