Sale Sharks boss Philippe Saint Andre was left counting the cost of his side's epic four-try 32-15 Heineken Cup Pool 2 win against Clermont Auvergne.

Sale face reigning European champions Munster at Edgeley park next Sunday and Saint Andre has lost centre Lee Thomas for up to six weeks with a shoulder injury and Wales and Lions scrum-half Dwayne Peel is an injury doubt for next week's clash after suffering a first-half stinger.

``Lee Thomas has damaged his shoulder and he could need surgery but Peel could recover in time to play against Munster if we are lucky,'' said Saint Andre, who described his side's display as the best he has seen from them since they beat Leicester Tigers to win the Guinness Premiership final three seasons ago.

``If you come here and you're not bold, you lose by 40 points,'' said Saint-Andre, who was a cult figure for local supporters during his time with Montferrand.

``When we had the ball we tried to attack and be adventurous and I'm very proud of my team after seeing them put on their best performance in Europe and the best I've seen since we won the Premiership final.

``Now, we have to prove we can put two big performances back to back by beating Munster. If we win here and lose at home to Munster, the hard work we did here will count for very little.''

Saint Andre threw Clermont a curve ball before the game kicked off, leaving England fly-half discard Charlie Hodgson on the bench and starting Richard Wigglesworth instead.

Man-of-the-match Luke McAlister, who finished the game with 17 points to his name, kicked two penalties to get Sale in front early on and they led 13-6 at half-time after David Doherty finished off a Peel break with McAlister adding the conversion.

Hodgson entered the fray early in the second half and he immediately set up a try for McAlister and by the end Rudi Keil and Mark Cueto were rubbing salt in the home side's wounds with a try apiece in the last 10 minutes.

Clermont, who take on Calvisano in Italy next week, had to settle for five penalties from Australian fly-half Brock James and they never got a sniff of the Sale try-line.

Saint Andre said: ``When we had the ball we attacked and tried to be adventurous and we punished their mistakes in the second half, when Charlie Hodgson came on and gave us a longer kicking game.

``Now, we have to see if we can put two big games like that together and we have to focus on the game against Munster from first thing on Monday morning.''