Premiership: Leicester Tigers 19-15 Sale Sharks

Leicester try-scorer Kyle Eastmond joined Tigers from Wasps in August

Sale Sharks were made to pay for missed kicks at goal as the Premiership's bottom club lost at Leicester Tigers.

Will Cliff failed with all three of his attempts, which would have contributed an extra seven points to Sale's cause.

Kyle Eastmond's first try for Leicester cancelled out Marland Yarde's early score for the visitors at Welford Road.

Rob Webber and Curtis Langdon finished off driving mauls for Sale, but George Ford's first-half conversion and two penalties for Tigers were crucial.

Sharks - who were forced into a late change before kick-off with AJ MacGinty absent - trailed 13-10 after Webber's try, and England fly-half Ford added two further penalties late on to seal a victory that took Leicester up to seventh in the table.

Both sides went into the match having won only one of their first four games and losing their previous two, and that lack of early season form was evident, with neither team able to wrest complete control of a scrappy contest.

Former Bath and Wasps man Eastmond combined well with fellow centre Gareth Owen for Leicester's only try, collecting Owen's offload to touch down near the posts.

Tigers wing Jonny May thought he had added a second before the interval, racing in unopposed from 50 metres, but the officials judged Ford's pass to May had gone forward.

Leicester: Olowofela; Thompstone, Owen, Eastmond, May; Ford, White; Bateman, T Youngs, Cole, Williams, Kitchener, Denton, Thompson, Kalamafoni.

Replacements: McMillan, Feao, Heyes, Wells, Mapapalangi, B Youngs, Hardwick, Holmes.

Sale: McGuigan; Solomona, L James, Jennings, Yarde; S James, Cliff; Harrison, Webber, John, Evans, Ostrikov, Ross, T Curry, Strauss.

Replacements: Langdon, Tarus, Jones, Phillips, Beaumont, B Curry, Warr, Van Rensburg.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys

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