Premiership: Leicester Tigers 35-27 Sale Sharks

Former Sale Sharks fly-half Joe Ford scored 13 of Leicester Tigers' 35 points

Leicester Tigers scored two late tries in an enthralling second half to defeat Sale Sharks at Welford Road.

Ben Curry scored the first try for Sale before seeing yellow for collapsing a maul that led to a Tigers penalty try.

Mark Jennings and Leicester prop Ellis Genge swapped tries before Marland Yarde went over on his Sale debut.

Jono Ross put Sale into a 27-23 lead after the break before Gareth Owen and Nick Malouf both touched down to seal an impressive comeback for the hosts.

• Exeter beat Harlequins to go top of Premiership

• Bath inflict seventh successive loss on London Irish

Leicester's win was their sixth in succession in the Premiership and moved them up to third in the table, while Sale slipped to their sixth defeat of the campaign - although they had the consolation of a bonus point for their four tries.

Yarde was making his first appearance for Sale since he joined from Harlequins earlier in November.

He impressed in his first game for the Sharks and his 38th-minute try sent Sale into the break with a narrow 22-20 lead, but he was yellow-carded late on as Sale fought to claw back what was only a three-point advantage for Leicester prior to Malouf running in.

Sale boss Steve Diamond was not on the touchline for the game after receiving a ban for comments made after their defeat by Exeter in October.

Diamond will be banned from the stadium for Sale's next three games after he was deemed to have failed "to respect the authority of match referee Craig Maxwell-Keys".

Leicester Tigers: Veainu; Malouf, Smith, Owen, Thompstone; Ford, Harrison: Bateman, Youngs (capt), Cilliers, Barrow, Kitchener, Williams, Evans, Mapapalangi.

Replacements: Thacker, Genge, Baumann, Fitzgerald, O'Connor, Simmons, Hardwick, Holmes.

Sale Sharks: Haley; Solomona, James, Jennings, Yarde; O'Connor, De Klerk; Harrison, Webber, John, Evans, Ostrikov, Ross (capt), Curry, Strauss.

Replacements: Jones, Flynn, Tarus, Nott, Moore, Neild, Cliff, Charnley.

Referee: Luke Pearce