Adam Radwan makes England statement as Leicester edge Sale in thriller

Man-of-the-match Adam Radwan dropped a broad hint to Steve Borthwick with two tries as Leicester held off a second-half fightback from Sale to claim a nailbiting 36-35 victory at Mattioli Woods Welford Road.

The England head coach is due to name his squad for the autumn internationals on Sunday and the prolific Tigers wing showed his finishing ability once again to take his tally to 14 tries in 14 league appearances for Leicester since moving from Newcastle last season.

Radwan, 27, who won the last of his two England caps in 2021, trained with the national squad last week and is pushing hard for inclusion.

Sale, crushed 65-14 by Saracens last weekend, put up much more of a fight and with Luke James grabbing a second half hat-trick, pushed the Tigers all the way but they had to settle for two bonus points at the end of a 10-try thriller.

Radwan opened the scoring for Leicester in the ninth minute, going over for a try from Freddie Steward’s pass after sustained Tigers pressure.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Leicester

21 - 16

Full-time

Sale

All Stats and Data

He grabbed his second five minutes before the break, taking Steward’s long pass on the touchline before picking a line infield and speeding through a gaping hole as Sale’s defence overran in an attempt to cut him off.

Sale hit back with a try from left wing Tom O’Flaherty as he held over scrum-half Tom Whiteley’s cover tackle to score in the corner.

But second row Cameron Henderson finished off some excellent approach work from Whiteley with the last action of the first half to give Leicester a 22-7 lead at the break.

Replacement Emeka Ilione – another hoping for inclusion in the England squad – made an instant impact after coming on, bursting onto Hanro Liebenberg’s pass to score Leicester’s bonus-point try in the 50th minute.

Either side of that score though, James crossed twice after the visitors’ pack had pummelled away close to the Leicester line. On both occasions George Ford was the man to open the door, slipping the Sale full-back in with lovely passes.

The to-and-fro continued with Whiteley dotting down from close range just before the hour before wing Tom Roebuck replied for Sale to secure their try-scoring bonus point.

James claimed his hat-trick score in the 71st minute with Ford again the creator, splitting the Leicester defence with a sweet inside pass to Marius Lowe who put the full-back in.

Ford’s conversion narrowed the deficit to one point but James’s high ball fumble under pressure from Radwan enabled the Tigers to close the game out to move to fifth in the Prem table.