Impressive Sale beat champions Leicester to move top of Premiership

Half-time replacement Raffi Quirke inspired Sale to a memorable victory at Premiership champions Leicester that maintained their perfect start to the league season. With Saracens not in action until Sunday, the Sharks are now top of the table after making it four wins from four games by coming back from 16-5 down.

It was a superb return from England scrum-half Quirke, who was playing in his first match for six months after a torn hamstring, but another shock to Leicester’s system as they suffered a second straight loss. Freddie Burns opened the scoring for Leicester with a penalty after six minutes, when Sale’s defence were stretched by a good break by Harry Potter and penalised for offside.

But it was the Sharks who had the game’s first try in the 11th minute as Tom O’Flaherty almost got away before his fellow winger Tom Roebuck slipped through some flimsy tackling to score down the left. Rob du Preez missed the conversion, giving Burns the chance to kick the Tigers 6-5 ahead with his second penalty after Potter was obstructed when trying to claim a high ball.

Following another successful kick at goal by Burns, as Sale’s discipline let them down again, Leicester went over for their first score of the afternoon after 29 minutes. Potter caused problems again down the left, as it took a last-ditch tackle by Manu Tuilagi to stop him, but Jasper Wiese picked up before being helped over in the corner by a gaggle of teammates.

Sale were quickly back in the picture however, as Gus Warr played the ball off the back of a scrum to Du Preez, who weaved his way through to score before converting to reduce the hosts’ lead to 16-12. The game was then turned on its head eight minutes into the second half when Quirke broke through down