| Gallagher Premiership |
|---|
| Sale (19) 36 |
| Tries: Evans, Yarde 3, Oosthuizen Cons: du Preez 4 Pen: du Preez |
| Leicester (3) 3 |
| Pen: Reid |
Marland Yarde’s hat-trick capped a dominant display as Sale beat Leicester with a bonus-point victory to get their play-off bid back on course.
After defeat at Saracens last week, Steve Diamond’s side bounced back in good style with five tries to move up to second in the Premiership table.
Winger Yarde broke from 45 yards out for his first try before scoring twice in three minutes in the second half.
Bryn Evans scored Sale’s first before Coenie Oosthuizen also crossed.
Evans charged down a box-kick from Tigers’ debutant scrum-half Jack van Poortvliet to collect and score before Yarde picked a superb line from Rob de Preez’s pass to burst through and touch down.
Oosthuizen then went over from close range for his first Premiership try as Sale took complete control shortly before half-time.
Leicester, once again badly exposed with five players away on England duty, actually took the lead after forcing several early penalties.
But they then barely got out of their own half in the second period to lose their seventh match of the season.
They did at least prevent Sale’s bonus-point try until 12 minutes from time but could not stop Yarde making an outside break from the 22 to go over in the left corner.
The England wing, who endured a tough year out after sustaining a horrific knee injury in October 2018, then touched down again to complete a memorable night, taking Sam James’ perfectly-weighted grubber to collect and score.
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond:
“I’m happy with where we’re at. We’ve still got a lot of work to do. We showed our frailties last week and we played the conditions a lot better, so we’ve learnt from it.
“We’ve got five or six lads to come back in so we’ve got some strength to come in over the next two, three or four weeks.
“We’ll also be announcing three signings over the next two or three weeks who are internationals.
“I’m glad we’ve got two good investors. It’s the first time we’ve ever gone anywhere near the salary cap and you can see the difference in the results.”
Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy told BBC Radio Leicester:
“We had a huge down wind in the first half and we didn’t manage that very well. Ill discipline cost us a lot of territory.
“For Sale to score three tries playing into that wind in the first half potentially we could have blown it up there. But we were beaten comprehensively by the better team.
“We traditionally have a good record of giving away less than 10 penalties in the Premiership but we got on the wrong side of the referee and some of them were just silly penalties.
“A count of 17 to 18 penalties against us was far too many and makes it very difficult to win any game. Sometimes you just have to take your medicine.”
Sale: Hammersley; Solomona, S James, L James, Yarde; R du Preez, Cliff; Oosthuizen, Webber, Cooper-Woolley, Evans, J-L du Preez, Ross (capt), Wilson, D du Preez.
Replacements: Langdon, Harrison, John, Phillips, Postlethwaite, Warr, Curtis, Reed.
Leicester: Veainu; Holmes, Taute, Eastmond, Olowofela; Reid, Van Poortvliet; Bateman, Polota-Nau, Cole (capt), Lavanini, Spencer, Liebenberg, Reffell, Boladau.
Replacements: Kerr, Leatigaga, Heyes, Batley, Wells, Lewis, Simmons, McPhillips.
Sin-bin: Cole (19), Reid (45).
Referee: Ian Tempest.
