diff --git a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtils.java
index a4d2371de..c1c7f6423 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtils.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2008-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2008-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -83,15 +83,15 @@ public abstract class QueryUtils {
 	private static final String IDENTIFIER = "[\\p{Alnum}._$]+";
 	private static final String IDENTIFIER_GROUP = String.format("(%s)", IDENTIFIER);
 
-	private static final String LEFT_JOIN = "left (outer )?join " + IDENTIFIER + " (as )?" + IDENTIFIER_GROUP;
-	private static final Pattern LEFT_JOIN_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(LEFT_JOIN, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
+	private static final String JOIN = "join " + IDENTIFIER + " (as )?" + IDENTIFIER_GROUP;
+	private static final Pattern JOIN_PATTERN = Pattern.compile(JOIN, Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE);
 
 	private static final String EQUALS_CONDITION_STRING = "%s.%s = :%s";
 	private static final Pattern ORDER_BY = Pattern.compile(".*order\\s+by\\s+.*", CASE_INSENSITIVE);
 
 	private static final Map<PersistentAttributeType, Class<? extends Annotation>> ASSOCIATION_TYPES;
 
-	private static final int QUERY_JOIN_ALIAS_GROUP_INDEX = 3;
+	private static final int QUERY_JOIN_ALIAS_GROUP_INDEX = 2;
 	private static final int VARIABLE_NAME_GROUP_INDEX = 4;
 
 	static {
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ public abstract class QueryUtils {
 	static Set<String> getOuterJoinAliases(String query) {
 
 		Set<String> result = new HashSet<String>();
-		Matcher matcher = LEFT_JOIN_PATTERN.matcher(query);
+		Matcher matcher = JOIN_PATTERN.matcher(query);
 
 		while (matcher.find()) {
 
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtilsUnitTests.java b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtilsUnitTests.java
index 03a96e23f..fbcc24158 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtilsUnitTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/springframework/data/jpa/repository/query/QueryUtilsUnitTests.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /*
- * Copyright 2008-2014 the original author or authors.
+ * Copyright 2008-2015 the original author or authors.
  *
  * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
  * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
@@ -150,11 +150,13 @@ public class QueryUtilsUnitTests {
 		assertThat(aliases, hasSize(1));
 		assertThat(aliases, hasItems("b2_$ar"));
 
-		aliases = getOuterJoinAliases("select p from Person p left outer join x.foo as b2_$ar, left join x.bar as foo where …");
+		aliases = getOuterJoinAliases(
+				"select p from Person p left outer join x.foo as b2_$ar, left join x.bar as foo where …");
 		assertThat(aliases, hasSize(2));
 		assertThat(aliases, hasItems("b2_$ar", "foo"));
 
-		aliases = getOuterJoinAliases("select p from Person p left join x.foo as b2_$ar, left outer join x.bar foo where …");
+		aliases = getOuterJoinAliases(
+				"select p from Person p left join x.foo as b2_$ar, left outer join x.bar foo where …");
 		assertThat(aliases, hasSize(2));
 		assertThat(aliases, hasItems("b2_$ar", "foo"));
 	}
@@ -281,6 +283,18 @@ public class QueryUtilsUnitTests {
 				is("select count(p.lastname) from Person p"));
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * @see DATAJPA-726
+	 */
+	@Test
+	public void detectsAliassesInPlainJoins() {
+
+		String query = "select p from Customer c join c.productOrder p where p.delayed = true";
+		Sort sort = new Sort("p.lineItems");
+
+		assertThat(applySorting(query, sort, "c"), endsWith("order by p.lineItems asc"));
+	}
+
 	private void assertCountQuery(String originalQuery, String countQuery) {
 		assertThat(createCountQueryFor(originalQuery), is(countQuery));
 	}