Woodward is urged to pencil in Sackey

England coach Clive Woodward, preparing to name his first squad of the season, has been urged to add London Irish flier Paul Sackey to his list of wings, headed by Saracens hat-trick hero Dan Luger.

Luger helped destroy Rotherham 59-5 yesterday and take Sarries to the top of the Zurich Premiership while Woodward was watching Sackey being starved of attacking opportunities as London Irish defeated Sale 28-13 before 4,100 fans at Madejski stadium in Reading.

Despite receiving few opportunities to show the kind of pace that helped the Irish defeat Sarries earlier in the season, Dick Best, the Irish director of rugby, believes Sackey is pressing for England honours at A or senior level this season.

Best said: "Paul is a match winner and we have to learn to use him properly. Clive was watching today and I believe he would have been pleased with what he saw. This was a wet day when Paul had to show the other attributes you need from a wing, like positional play and defensive responsibilities."

Sackey may have to wait his turn on the England wing as Luger is by some way the most dangerous finisher in the league Francois Pienaar, the Sarries CEO said: "Dan Luger was owed a good game and he did that today. Just look at his workrate. He even scored a try on the wrong wing!

"I really did not expect us to put Rotherham away like that and in view of the wet conditions, it was even more remarkable that we scored some fantastic tries. But you don't win the Premiership in September.

"It is a long season and, although we will enjoy the win, tomorrow we start preparing for a massive game against Bath next weekend."

That match will put Luger up against Iain Balshaw, the young Bath and England utility back, who is pressing the Sarries star and Leicester's Austin Healey for a start in the first Test of the winter, against Australia in November. However, Bath and Balshaw will also have to keep a close eye on French maestro Thomas Castaignede who scored 29 points yesterday.

London Wasps also featured in a match where a team scored 59 points. Unfortunately, it was opponents Newcastle. Nigel Melville, the Wasps director of rugby, will chair a major debrief today following that 59-21 loss. He said: "We will sit down and talk it through and the players are very honest.

"They share collective responsibility and no-one is going to fall out over this. We thought we could still win it at half-time but we simply gave away too much ball and Newcastle took every opportunity we gave them."

Harlequins should have beaten Gloucester but handed their opponents too many penalties and, despite scoring two impressive tries, they lost 27-23.

Meanwhile, London Irish must send on-loan scrum-half Kevin Ellis back to Cardiff after next week's trip to Rotherham as he is needed by the Welsh club for their Heineken Cup campaign.