Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was frustrated by his side’s display as they lost to Sale for the first time since 2011 on Saturday.

An early Alex Goode penalty gave McCall’s men the lead but first-half tries from Sam Tuitopou and Jonathan Mills took the game away from the visitors.

Despite a late try from Richard Barrington securing a losing bonus point, McCall was upset by his team’s inability to compete with Sale.

“They out-muscled us, out-manoeuvred us and got the better of us, at line out time in particular. They were clinical when they had their chances,” McCall told the club website.

“We played against a really good Sale team today. We were not good in the first half but we improved in the second half and had a lot more ball.”

After showing little invention in the opening exchanges, Saracens fell behind to Tuitopou’s try after brilliant play from Danny Cipriani.

The England international made an incisive break before passing the ball out of the back of his hand to allow Tuitopou to bundle over from close range.

McCall was frustrated as Saracens were reduced to 13 men after first Jacques Burger was sin binned for not using his arms in a tackle, and then Richard Wigglesworth saw yellow for a high tackle.

He explained: “Sale were excellent, give them credit for that, but we were off our game in the first half and the two yellow cards didn’t help.”

Sale took advantage of their numerical supremacy from a five metre line out with a driving maul that resulted in Jonathan Mills scoring shortly before half time.

After the poor first half showing McCall’s men gained a modicum of control on proceedings in the second period.

However, they came up against a solid Sale defence and couldn’t break through until Mark Cueto saw yellow for deliberately knocking on when Sarries were close to scoring.

Barrington powered over in the 79th minute before Goode added the conversion to earn an important losing bonus point.

The Men in Black host Newcastle Falcons at Allianz Park on Sunday.