Leicester edge out Sale by point in 10-try thriller

The Prem.

Leicester (22) 36

Trys: Searle Pens: O’Connor (3), Radwan (2), Henderson, Ilione, Whiteley Cons:

Sale (7) 35

In a 10-try thriller at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, Tigers of Leicester won a close call against Sale Sharks.

Adam Radwan scored twice in the first half, but Tom O’Flaherty put a diving, inch-perfect effort in the final moments to put the visitors on the board.

From that point on, Cameron Henderson and Luke James’ scores cancelled out on either side of the break before Emeka Ilione added yet another try to bolster his steadily gaining popularity.

The Tigers took the lead after a number of drives in the Sale 22.

The opportunity appeared to have passed, but Freddie Steward’s quick hands sent Radwan clear for the opening try of the afternoon.

The Sharks struggled to match the Tigers’ early intensity, which was still reeling from last week’s humiliating 65-14 defeat by Saracens, only to find themselves almost awarded a score following a loose Leicester pass, which was ultimately wasted thanks to a knock-on.

The Tigers took the lead in the midst of a flurry of penalties, handling errors, and misplaced lineouts.

The Sharks stopped the ensuing rolling maul after an attacking Leicester line-out, but Steward once more fed the ball to Radwan to find the ideal angle to scythe through and extend the lead.

However, the visitors must have something to be excited about with the second of the winger.

O’Flaherty resisted Whiteley’s pressure and quickly forced his way over in the corner shortly after the restart.

However, Leicester found the line once more as half-time approached.

Sale started with a much stronger sense of purpose, which made the second half so much more unique from the first.

George Ford fed James to jog over untouched after a string of drives up to the Tigers’ line and the defense narrowing.

When Leicester added their bonus-point score, any sense of relief from that score quickly vanished.

Ilione stooped through a gap to the posts while Hanro Liebenberg’s slip pass appeared to be complete, with the visitors’ defense seemingly set.

With both defenses firmly rooted, Sale retreated to the Leicester line once more after the game had begun.

After receiving a precise pass from Ford, James found a gap in the visitors’ penalty to keep them in contention. It was almost identical to his first try.

After Ollie Chessum had been repelled, the scrum-half took advantage of Whiteley’s next chance and fired a close-range snipe over from close range.

It only fitting that Sale scored their bonus-point try soon after Rob du Preez exploited a defense gap before being dragged down because both teams appeared to score at will.

Raffi Quirke’s replacement marshalled his forwards before eventually passing to Roebuck to add to the try-awesome.

Sale scored a fifth after breaking the tit-for-tat cycle.

Marius Louw was forced to pass through a gap by the imperious Ford, who James claimed his hat-trick when the Tigers ran out of defenders.

Replacements: Bailey, Searle, Hurd, Wells, Ilione, Allan, and Clare.

Sale: James, Roebuck, du Preez, Ma’asi-White, O’Flaherty, Ford, Warr, Opoku-Fordjour, Cowan-Hickie, Harper, van Rhyn (c), Bamber, Vermuelen, Woodman, Dugdale, and others.

Jibulu’s replacement Bell, Burrow, Du Preez, Quirke, Louw, Reed, and Onasanya.