Alex Sanderson's 39-word update on Tom Curry

Leicester head coach Michael Cheika praised the resilience of his side as they turned around a 10-point deficit to record a crucial 44-34 victory over Sale.

Victory lifted the second-placed Tigers seven points clear of their opponents in the Premiership table with only two games to go.

It was a pulsating and enthralling contest, with both sides scoring five tries, but the impeccable goal-kicking of Handre Pollard proved the difference as he kicked three penalties and converted all five tries.

Ollie Hassell-Collins and Emeka Ilione both scored two with Adam Radwan also crossing.

Cheika said: “We weren’t far away in the first half but we didn’t put them under enough pressure as we allowed George Ford, who is a quality player, to charm us as we stood off him.

“We needed to tone it up by 10-15 per cent and we did by defending much better in the second half and putting pressure on their line-out.

“The game was of Test match intensity and we had to regroup after they hit us with an early score, but we still made a few poor plays.”

It was rough justice on Sale that they came away with just a single point as they had contend with the loss of newly-selected British Lion Tom Curry midway through the first half with a hamstring issue.

“It was a hamstring problem which will need assessing,” Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson said.

“Tom is a tough lad and he tried to run it off for 10 minutes but he had to come off as a precaution as we need to rotate our squad ahead of a difficult run in.”

Rob du Preez scored two of Sale’s tries with Luke Cowan-Dickie, Rekeiti Ma’asi-White and Arron Reed also crossing. George Ford converted three and added a penalty.

Sanderson added: “It’s not what we came down for and at half-time when we led 26-16, I didn’t think we would be in this position.

“We missed a couple of decent chances early in the second half and we let them back in it so it was a case of big moments turning on small issues, but our penalty count was probably more than any recent games and in the end it cost us.

“I think the home semi-final is now gone as we’ve made it harder for ourselves but there’s probably still three games to go and we’ll keep fighting.