Premiership: Sale 27-27 London Irish - Late Phipps try grabs Exiles draw

James Stokes of London Irish and Sale's Arron Reed were two of the try-scorers in the 27-27 draw

The points were shared between Sale Sharks and London Irish after an eight-try thriller at the AJ Bell Stadium.

Two tries from Dan du Preez, one from twin brother Jean-Luc and a fourth from Arron Reed had put Sale 27-22 up.

The visitors' earlier scores had come from Terrence Hepetema, James Stokes and Benhard Janse van Rensburg.

Both sides pick up three points each with two for the draw and one bonus point for scoring four tries, which was enough to move the Exiles into the top four and edge Sale up one place into sixth.

Remarkably this was London Irish's fourth draw of the season, with the reverse fixture having ended in a 31-31 draw at the Brentford Community Stadium back in September.

It took over 30 minutes for any points to be scored before Lucio Luna's scintillating break allowed Hepetema to go under the posts.

But with Stokes yellow carded for a trip, Dan du Preez powered over before a MacGinty penalty put the hosts in front at half-time.

The second half was full of incident as a Paddy Jackson penalty put the Exiles back in front straight away, before the Sharks again used their man advantage with Jean-Luc du Preez grabbing the try.

But within minutes of re-entering the field, Stokes went over in the corner to level the scores.

When flanker Olly Cracknell was sent to the sin-bin, Sale's power was too much for the 14 men as Dan du Preez scored his second try of the night.

But again London Irish responded with replacement Janse van Rensburg going over in the corner.

However, home winger Reed looked to have grabbed the decisive score - and his side's fourth try - only for London Irish to regroup once they were back up to 15, with Australia scrum-half Phipps diving over after picking up from the back of a maul.

More to follow.