Bath’s heavyweight bench came to the rescue as they narrowed the gap on Prem leaders Northampton Saints to a single point with a comeback win against Sale Sharks.

The champions’ rotated team, with the likes of Finn Russell and Ben Spencer rested, trailed 19-7 at the interval but their power-packed cavalry changed the course of the contest as they went over for four second-half tries.

The match-winning score came from one of the bench crew – No 8 Alfie Barbeary – with nine minutes left. But it was another of the second-half additions, England A hooker Kepu Tuipulotu, who caught the eye most with a terrific performance. His assist for Bernard van der Linde’s try just after the hour, which brought Bath level, combined power, vision and touch with a lovely kick slid through with the outside of his right boot showcasing a rare skill set.

“It was a massive moment in the game. That’s what you want from your players, a point of difference,” said Bath head coach Johann van Graan.

“He’s one of the most explosive players I’ve coached and he’s got huge potential.

“He’s still a young man, he’s got loads to learn, but he’s doing that very well.”

It was an excellent outcome for Bath from a game which presented them with plenty of problems to solve.

They lost Joe Cokanasiga and Dan Frost to the sin-bin in the first half and were under such stress at the scrum that Van Graan was forced to take the shepherd’s crook to Billy Sela and Scott Kirk and replace them with Thomas du Toit and Beno Obano before the break.

But Bath know what works for them and have an assurance about them these days. With the wind at their backs in the second period, they were almost irresistible.

Centre Louie Hennessey and Ethan Staddon went over for tries which wiped out the lead Sale had built up through first-half scores from Tom O’Flaherty, Rob du Preez and Luke Cowan-Dickie. Tom Roebuck, timing his entry into the line perfectly, restored Sale’s advantage just before the hour but Bath had the cards to play in the final quarter.

Ewan Richards picked off a Sale attacking line-out and, from his own 22, Tuipulotu pummelled his way down the short side, running through two tackles, before spotting space in the Sale back field and setting up replacement scrum-half Van der Linde perfectly with his piece of footballing magic.

Then came Barbeary’s killer thrust, after 28 punishing phases, to put them within sight of the finishing line. While Sale engineered a great position to steal the win late on, George Ford – playing his first game since February 21 after being dropped by England following the Six Nations defeat to Ireland – lost control of the ball and the chance slipped away.

It was Sharks’ ninth defeat of a disappointing league campaign.

“I’m crestfallen,” said Sale’s director of rugby Alex Sanderson, who was forced to play a hooker, Nathan Jibulu, at No 7 because of his back-row injury issues.

“I’m just gutted for the amount of effort that the lads put in. It is frustrating but it’s seemingly a similar story to how the rest of the season has gone.

“They’re a good team, with a strong bench and a minimal-risk game plan. You know where they are coming from but you’ve still got to be very, very, very good to stop them.”

Sale, in their current incarnation, are a long way from that. Their season now hinges on a round-of-16 Champions Cup tie at Harlequins next weekend. Bath have a home tie against Saracens and the A-listers will be back for that one.

Match details

Scoring sequence: 0-5 Frost try, 0-7 Carreras con, 5-7 O’Flaherty try, 7-7 Ford con, 12-7 du Preez try, 14-7 Ford con, 19-7 Cowan-Dickie try, 19-12 Hennessey try, 19-14 Carreras con, 19-19 Staddon try, 24-19 Roebuck try, 26-19 Ford con, 26-24, Tuipulotu try, 26-26 Carreras con, 26-31 Barbeary try.

Sale Sharks: J Carpenter; T Roebuck, R du Preez (M Louw 48), R Ma’asi-White, T O’Flaherty; G Ford, R Quirke (G Warr 60); B Rodd (R McEachran 60), L Cowan-Dickie (E Caine 60), J Harper (T Raymont 60), E van Rhyn, B Bamber, S Dugdale (D du Preez 57), N Jibulu (J Gilmore 72), J Vermeulen.

Bath: T de Glanville; J Cokanasiga, L Hennessey, C Redpath, W Muir; S Carreras, T Carr-Smith (B van der Linde 60); S Kirk (B Obano 35), D Frost (K Tuipulotu 41), V Sela (T du Toit 35), W Jeanes (E Richards 53), R Molony (C Ewels 54-72), T Hill, E Staddon, M Reid (A Barbeary 60).
Sin-bin: Cokanasiga, Frost.

Referee: L Pearce.