John Mitchell, Sale's new coaching consultant, watched from the stands as the Premiership's bottom side slipped to a 33-18 defeat by Montpellier at a rain-soaked Stade Yves du Manoir. Sale are five points behind Toulon at the top of Pool Six and meet the leaders in Salford on 8 December.

The Sharks had trailed only 12-8 at half-time, with Mark Cueto touching down for their only try, but they had no answer to the brilliance of François Trinh-Duc in the second half. The France fly-half scored his side's first try after 51 minutes before two sublime moments set up another two scores in a decisive 10-minute burst. Trinh-Duc twice deftly kicked over the Sharks line, the first allowing Timoci Nagusa to race over, before the fly-half regathered his next kick and expertly spotted Julien Tomas to score.

That left Sale, who had beaten the Cardiff Blues, with too much to do over the final 20 minutes, although Richie Vernon did manage a late consolation try. The Sharks head coach, Bryan Redpath, had made eight changes from the side that grabbed their sole success of the season against the Blues, but he saw his pack struggle in the scrum.

Munster's head coach, Rob Penney, believes his side's bonus-point win over Edinburgh will provide invaluable momentum ahead of back-to-back meetings with Saracens in December.The Irish side trail the Pool One leaders Saracens by three points, following their 33-0 demolition of Edinburgh at Thomond Park.

Three tries in the final 10 minutes from Peter O'Mahony, Sean Dougall and Damien Varley, to add to Conor Murray's earlier touchdown, ensured Munster collected an unlikely bonus point against the disappointing Scots, who have failed to score a point for the second successive pool game.

Penney said: "We are still masters of our own destiny. If we do well then we are still in the hunt, whether we get bonus points or not. The performance today probably wouldn't be good enough to beat Saracens. We still have lots and lots to do."