Irish can benefit from home comforts in bid to make Sale suffer

London Irish are primed to pull further away from the Aviva Premiership relegation zone should they defeat a Sale Sharks side who’ve failed to triumph at the Madjeski Stadium since 2006.

However, the real value could be had by veering away from match betting and instead undertaking an examination of the recent winning margins in previous matches between the two teams.

Barring a 38-0 trouncing in 2010, Sale’s last four Premiership losses in Berkshire have come by an average of just over 11 points.

That makes the 9/4 for London Irish to defeat their struggling opponents by a margin of between 11-20 points an attractive and viable proposition.

For punters worried about an upset, it’s worth noting that the hosts’ overall home form has been the main reason they’ve managed to avoid being dragged too far into this season’s relegation scrap.

Undefeated since before Christmas at the Madjeski, Irish have cobbled together a five-game winning sequence that’s encompassed a morale boosting victory against high-flyers Saracens.

Also, twenty of the 28 points that the Exiles have earned this season have been collected on their own patch while Sale have only managed to win one of their nine games away from Salford.

That solitary victory on their travels was a narrow 26-25 victory against bottom-side London Welsh last month, a statistic that does little to further their case for success this weekend.

Given the above and other current trends, solace may be in short supply for those tempted to back the outsiders from Greater Manchester.

Their hosts have also scored the first try in each of their last four previous ties in Reading with 4/9 for London Irish to be the first team to cross over and 4/6 for them to open the scoring looking justified.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date