Premiership: Sale comeback stuns leaders Leicester while Wasps beat Saracens

The Midlanders were utterly dominant in the first half, taking advantage of numerous Sale errors to go 18-5 in front thanks to Julian Montoya and Guy Porter tries, while Freddie Burns kicked two penalties and a conversion.

Although Luke James hit back for the home side, another Burns three-pointer appeared to have put the Tigers out of reach, but Sale had other ideas.

Ben Curry began the comeback before further efforts from Arron Reed and Dan du Preez took the Sharks ahead.

Leicester did briefly regain their advantage through Montoya’s second try, but Alex Sanderson’s men were in the ascendency and successive AJ MacGinty penalties, allied by Tom Roebuck’s late breakaway try, sealed the win for the hosts.

The Tigers, with veteran Richard Wigglesworth in as skipper and scrum-half, were first on the board when Burns kicked a monster of a penalty from just inside the Sale half.

The visitors had lost five of their previous six trips to Sale, but they signalled their battling intentions after 15 minutes when they bagged their first five-pointer.

After winning their lineout in the corner, Montoya barged through the scrum to touch down for a try which Burns converted from out wide.

Sale were not perturbed, however, and swiftly struck back.

A smart side-step from James allowed the hosts’ full-back to dart home to halve the deficit to 10-5.

Steve Borthwick’s men are not short on resilience, though, and it was not long before they were in again after Guy Porter thundered past two hefty challenges before going over in the left corner.

The Tigers took control in the second quarter when their passing and possession was much crisper.

They stretched their lead to 18-5 shortly before the interval when Burns nailed another exquisite