Leicester's World Cup stars, led by the Italian prop Martin Castrogiovanni, came to the rescue last night with three tries in eight minutes to spare last season's beaten finalists against Sale.
From being 10 points down at the interval, and looking distinctly second best to the muscular side that Steve Diamond is putting together, the weight and experience of the Leicester forwards took their toll with Castrogiovanni scoring one try and helping to make another, before Toby Flood put the game out of Sale's reach.
Leicester's other Argentina-born prop, Marcos Ayerza, rubbed it in but for 40 minutes the visitors looked distinctly rocky and were in grave danger of becoming Sale's latest early-season victims after Northampton, Gloucester, London Irish and Wasps.
They had all 12 players back from the World Cup for the first time and everyone bar Ben Youngs fit to play. Sale had one of the Welsh heroes, Andy Powell, back but for only 30 minutes as he started on the bench after just a week with the team.
n Dwayne Peel this Sale side have a talent to embarrass any opponents. Twice in the first 20 minutes he caught Leicester napping, sending the full-back Rob Miller scuttling down the left before coming close to making a try on the other side with a precise chip for the wing, Tom Brady. He then made the Brady try which took Sale to an interval lead of 13-3.
With the new centre partnership of Sam Tuitupou and Johnny Leota giving Flood and co precious little room in midfield and James Gaskell as aggressive as ever round the fringes, Diamond's awkward squad were worth it, but the half-time lecture from Leicester's coach, Richard Cockerill, turned things around.
First Flood nibbled into the lead with his second penalty of the night before the Leicester forwards again made their weight tell. Castrogiovanni, on for Dan Cole, was centre stage as his pack marched Sale up the left touchline line. But just when a forward try looked inevitable, Flood went wide and Alesana Tuilagi came racing into midfield.
Rarely is the Samoan stopped on one of his sweeping charges and he was under the post in the 67th minute, followed by Castrogiovanni in less athletic form five minutes later. He was on the end of another forward heave, as was Ayerza for the final try of the evening. Between times, though, the killer blow was delivered by Flood who exchanged passes with James Grindal under Sale noses and in front of the posts, to put the game beyond the home side, even though there were 26 minutes left to play.
After a dismal start to the season and only one league win from six matches, they have now put together convincing victories in the cup – over Gloucester – and, belatedly, over Sale. "We've had a bit of stick across the board about everything in the past six or seven weeks but we've stuck to our guns and we've worked through it and believed in the stuff we do," said Cockerill. "Tonight we got proved right but there's a long way to go."
Diamond was frustrated by Sale's "Jekyll and Hyde character". He said: "Our set piece let us down, they scored from two driving mauls five metres out and our scrum didn't look very stable for most of the game."
Sale Miller; Brady, Leota, Tuitupou, Cueto; MacLeod, Peel (Cliff, 62); Cobilas (Imiolek, 71), Jones (Ward, 51), Thomas (Buckley, 57), Lewaravu (Powell, 51), Myall, Gaskell, Seymour, Vernon. Try Brady Pens MacLeod 2 Con MacLeod Leicester Murphy (Morris, 72); Hamilton, Agulla, Smith, A Tuilagi; Flood (Staunton, 72), Harrison (Grindal, 52); Ayerza (Stankovich, 70), Chuter (T Youngs, 64), Cole (Castrogiovanni, 55), Skivington (Slater, 64), Parling, Croft (Mafi, 70), Salvi, Waldrom. Tries Tuilagi, Castrogiovanni, Flood, Ayerza Pens Flood 2 Cons Flood 4
Referee A Small (RFU)
