Robinson returns with two reminders

Jason Robinson is not going quietly. Josh Lewsey may be flavour of the month and the man in possession of the England No15 shirt but the Sale full-back proved on Saturday that he still has something unique to offer.

The choice for Clive Woodward tomorrow when he announces his England team to play Scotland will be between the man who ran classic lines at line-breaking angles to score two tries and be man of the match against Italy and a player who can conjure tries from nothing. Or perhaps he can have both, with one playing on the wing.

Twice on Saturday Robinson brought Heywood Road to its feet. First, with the whistle barely gone for the start of the second half, he sidestepped Tristan Davies just outside the Sale 22-metre line before chipping the ball into the corner. Dan Scarbrough looked odds on to win the race but the Sale full-back drew level and then muscled the England A man aside to touch down.

If that was good, then better was to come. Eight minutes from time and 45 metres out Graeme Bond, Sale's rock in midfield, managed to offload in the tackle. One second Robinson was surrounded by three Leeds shirts, the next he was in the clear.

Then Scarbrough tackled fresh air and Winston Stanley lost the footrace to the line. Robinson had time to get the ball close enough to the posts for even Jos Baxendell to kick the extra points.

Woodward was at Bath on Saturday but he will get a report on Robinson's return to fitness after knee injury from the national academy director Brian Ashton. The England coach was checking on back-up for Jonny Wilkinson now that Charlie Hodgson is out for possibly six months with ligament damage. Quite what Sale will do to replace Hodgson is less clear.

On Saturday they went with Baxendell rather than Nick Walshe at outside-half. Baxendell failed with three of his six kicks at goal but he did take a knock midway through the first half and his distribution was the key to Sale's five-try performance.

As Sale's head coach Jim Mallinder admitted: "Jos is not a front-line goalkicker but it is part of the game he will have to work on. Charlie was out earlier in the season and we did without him then and we'll do without him again. We don't go out to win by kicking penalty goals. We go out to score tries."

That was obvious on Saturday as Sale opted to run at Leeds even from their own line. But with Leicester (away), Gloucester (home) and Northampton (away) waiting around the corner a few more kicked points may come in handy when things get tight in the race for the title or the play-offs. For the moment Saturday's bonus point, the seventh of the season, sees Sale secure in second place.

As for Leeds, the side that illuminated the early season are in danger of ending up empty handed. Their in-yer-face style of rugby saw them level at half-time, with short-range tries from Isaac Feaunati and Cameron Mather matching two from Andy Titterell and Steve Hanley. In the second half they were hanging on as Sale crossed the line three times.

First and last came Robinson. In between, a clever reverse pass in the 53rd minute from Baxendell to Mark Cueto opened the Leeds door for Dan Harris, who went over under the posts. Stanley gained some consolation on the final whistle but it was a dejected Leeds coach Jon Callard who said later: "Robinson had two opportunities to change the game and he took them."

Sale: Robinson; Cueto, Harris (Going, 71), Bond, Hanley; Baxendell (Walshe, 74), Redpath (capt); Yates (Thorp, 71), Titterrell , (Marais, 72), Stewart (Turner, h-t); Jones, Schofield (Fullarton, 62); Sanderson, Anglesea (Davies, 62), Pinkerton.

Tries: Titterell, Hanley, Robinson 2, Harris. Con: Baxendell 2. Pen: Baxendell

Sin-bin: Jones 21.

Leeds: Scarbrough; Harder, Davies, Van Straaten, Albanese; Ross, Dickens (Hegarty, h-t); Shelley (capt; Holt, 66), Regan (Rawlinson, 66), Kerr; Murphy, Palmer (Campbell, 66); Mather, Popham, Feaunati (Hogg, 66).

Tries: Feaunati, Mather, Stanley. Con: Van Straaten. Pen: Van Straaten

Referee: D Pearson (Northumberland).

Attendance: 5,700.