The visitors were keen to get revenge having lost all three previous meetings between the sides.
And it was Sale who drew first blood through a James Robins penalty on 16 minutes.
The Lions responded well though and when Joe Brock received a goal line drop out, the ball was fed wide to Mali Satala who found Harry Palmer back on the inside to score.
Fly-half Luke Bouchier converted and then added a penalty to extend Lions’ lead to 10-3.
The remainder of the half belonged to Sale though.
Lions' back three were struggling to field the contested box kicks and Sale converted these territory gains into points through two scores from centre Oslan Roberts who twice crashed through the Lions midfield.
Robins converted both scores to give Sale a 17-10 half-time lead.
The visitors continued their dominance at the start of the second period with two driving maul tries from Joshua Brown and then Alfie Longstaff.
That was followed by a score for second row Evan Mintern who crashed over from close range on 57 minutes to give the visitors a healthy 32-10 lead.
The final quarter saw Lions hit back with three tries of their own.
Firstly, Charlie Davies made a dent off a scrum move and found Jamel Hamilton with an offload to put his fellow centre over.
This was followed quickly by Harry Palmer putting his second row partner Ben Almond under the sticks with a nice short ball.
Bouchier converted both tries to reduce the arrears to 32-24.
Another maul try for Sale on 70 minutes, and a second for Longstaff, sealed the win for the visitors.
But a fourth successive conversion miss from Robins meant a converted score would still earn the Lions two bonus points, despite trailing 37-2...
And it was Sale who drew first blood through a James Robins penalty on 16 minutes.
The Lions responded well though and when Joe Brock received a goal line drop out, the ball was fed wide to Mali Satala who found Harry Palmer back on the inside to score.
Fly-half Luke Bouchier converted and then added a penalty to extend Lions’ lead to 10-3.
The remainder of the half belonged to Sale though.
Lions' back three were struggling to field the contested box kicks and Sale converted these territory gains into points through two scores from centre Oslan Roberts who twice crashed through the Lions midfield.
Robins converted both scores to give Sale a 17-10 half-time lead.
The visitors continued their dominance at the start of the second period with two driving maul tries from Joshua Brown and then Alfie Longstaff.
That was followed by a score for second row Evan Mintern who crashed over from close range on 57 minutes to give the visitors a healthy 32-10 lead.
The final quarter saw Lions hit back with three tries of their own.
Firstly, Charlie Davies made a dent off a scrum move and found Jamel Hamilton with an offload to put his fellow centre over.
This was followed quickly by Harry Palmer putting his second row partner Ben Almond under the sticks with a nice short ball.
Bouchier converted both tries to reduce the arrears to 32-24.
Another maul try for Sale on 70 minutes, and a second for Longstaff, sealed the win for the visitors.
But a fourth successive conversion miss from Robins meant a converted score would still earn the Lions two bonus points, despite trailing 37-2...
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Leicester Mercury (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 25, 2025