Leicester's Tom Youngs celebrates his score © Getty Images

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Matches Leicester 30 - 20 Sale

Players/Officials Lewis Moody

Teams England | Leicester | Sale

Leicester head coach Heyneke Meyer hailed the returning Lewis Moody but admitted his side made hard work of beating a second-string Sale side 30-20 tonight.

Jordan Crane's injury-time try finally made the game safe for the Tigers after they saw their 13-0 half-time lead go up in smoke at Welford Road. And although disappointed with his side's exit from the EDF Energy Anglo-Welsh Cup - Cardiff reached the semi-finals instead with victory over Bath tonight - after reaching two successive finals, Meyer was delighted with flanker Moody's comeback following nine months on the sidelines.

He said: "I think Lewis did well. He stole a few good balls and his defence was great. For a guy that has not played for so long, he really played well. I think he needs two or three games to be back to his best but you saw tonight he is always at a very high standard.

"Our first priorities are the Premiership and the Heineken Cup but we want to win every single trophy. It was always going to be tough to have two away games and one at home. I thought we lost our composure after half-time, which was unacceptable. There were a lot of new guys in there but we can play a lot better. It was a tougher game than we needed."

Fly-half Derick Hougaard kicked Leicester into a 6-0 lead early on and referee James Jones awarded them a penalty try on 18 minutes after Sale repeatedly collapsed a five-metre scrum. Sale centre Rudi Keil spurned a two-on-one in a first half Leicester dominated but they did get back into the game after half-time with two penalties from the boot of Nick McLeod.

And the visitors drew level when Chris Bell latched onto Ben Youngs' awful pass with McLeod converting to make it 13-13.

Leicester again edged in front through centre Tom Youngs' score after good work by wing Tom Varndell only for another Leicester error to let Sale back into the game. This time replacement full-back Sam Vesty misjudged a high ball allowing Mark Atkinson to set up Bell for his second try.

Hougaard, though, put Leicester back in front with a penalty before Crane made sure of the win after snaffling up a loose ball.

Sale boss Philippe Saint-Andre handed 12 debuts to his players during the EDF campaign and he insisted there were still positives to be taken despite three defeats. He said: "We had a lot of young players in the EDF and I think they learned a lot. I am proud because we did not lose by 50 points, it was a good game. There were some silly mistakes but that's the only way they will learn and some of these guys will be pushing for a place in the 22 against Gloucester.

"We only have 31 full-time players so we need to find some talents. I would prefer the competition during November or in the Six Nations so I can have all my players but we decided to develop our players in this competition."