Tom Beim gave England coach Clive Woodward something to think about with five tries as Sale demolished Orrell at Heywood Road in the first leg of this Cheltenham and Gloucester Cup first round match..

Sale, last season's beaten semi-finalists in the competition, were better in every department and the performance of England wing Beim was matched by centre Steve Davidson, who grabbed two tries and contributed a further 15 points via the boot.

Orrell had clearly decided there was nothing in this competition for them, but the outcome did demonstrate the growing gulf between the two divisions of the Allied Dunbar Premiership.

Rugby Lions 8-5 Leicester Tigers

A Leicester side containing just six first team regulars found their near neighbours Lions in resilient mood in the first leg.

Martyn Davies, who had a superb defensive game, opened the scoring for Lions after 22 minutes when he struck over a 38-metre penalty.

Former Tiger Chris Tarbuck extended the lead with a try in the 28th minute as Lions' pack surged through from a close range scrum to give them an 8-0 half-time advantage.

Decent possession was hard to find in a tight second half.

Tigers eventually crossed in the 67th minute when Michael Horak nipped down the short side for a try by the corner flag.

Leicester threw everything into attack in the final few minutes but Lions were in no mood for surrender.

Coventry 13-12 Bedford

Second Division Coventry will take the most slender of margins to First Division Bedford for next Sunday's second leg.

It was always a tight struggle between two sides whose results have dipped in recent matches.

Coventry led by a single unconverted try in an error-filled first half, lock Kevin Whitley plunging over.

Argentinian fly half Luis Chriscuolo added a penalty goal to improve Coventry's margin in the third minute of the second half before Bedford began to apply fierce pressure.

James Hinkins crashed over in the corner, but Coventry scored their second try of the match midway through number eight Rob Salisbury.

But Bedford finished the stronger and with three minutes to go No.8 Junior Paramore crashed over from a short range tap penalty. Whetstone converted to set-up an intriguing second leg.

Blackheath 0-42 London Scottish

Beleaguered Blackheath were given a rugby lesson by London Scottish in this first leg at the Rectory Field.

Scottish, playing their trademark running and passing game, romped to a 15-0 lead within quarter of an hour with tries from Kenneth Milligan, Simon Forrest and Stephen Cook.

Jannie De Beer added a drop goal on 24 minutes and a Rhodri Davies try converted by De Beer a minute before the break gave Scottish a 25-0 half-time lead.

The second half followed the same pattern as the first with Blackheath's isolated attacks stifled by the Scottish back row.