Tom Curry suffers harm scare in Sale defeat to Leicester after being chosen for Lions tour

Tom Curry has suffered an harm scare only a day after being chosen for the British and Irish Lions squad.

Curry departed in the course of the first half of Sale’s Premiership conflict with Leicester with a leg harm.

“It was a hamstring problem which will need assessing,” Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson stated.

“Tom is a tough lad and he tried to run it off for 10 minutes but he had to come off as a precaution as we need to rotate our squad ahead of a difficult run-in.”

Within the match Sale matched their opponents with 5 tries however the exemplary goal-kicking of Handre Pollard proved the distinction. Ollie Hassell-Collins and Emeka Ilione each scored two tries as Leicester took a 44-34 win in a pulsating contest to make them agency favourites for a house Premiership semi-final.

Leicester trailed 26-16 at one stage however their bonus-point victory takes the second-placed Tigers seven factors away from Sale with two league video games remaining, one in every of which is a house fixture with backside membership Newcastle.

Pollard missed nothing by kicking three penalties and 5 conversions, with Adam Radwan additionally on Leicester’s try-scoring sheet.

Rob du Preez scored two of Sale’s tries with Luke Cowan-Dickie, Rekeiti Ma’asi-White and Arron Reed additionally crossing and George Ford changing three and including a penalty.

It took Sale lower than two minutes to open the scoring. They gained a penalty on the first scrum and from the ensuing line-out Cowan-Dickie was shoved over the road.

Nonetheless the response was swift as Tigers constructed a interval of sustained strain earlier than a break from Pollard despatched Radwan flying over for the wing’s seventh strive in six video games since becoming a member of the membership from Newcastle.

Pollard transformed and added a penalty after it was Sale’s flip to infringe on the scrum however the dwelling facet proceeded to bungle the restart.

That gave Sale an attacking platform and so they made it rely when Ma’asi-White ran a neat line off a well-timed move from Du Preez to evade Freddie Steward and rating.

Ford transformed for Sale to steer 12-10 on the finish of a busy first quarter.

A second penalty from Pollard put his facet again in entrance however the lead was short-lived as an elusive run from Ford cut up the defence to ship Reed in underneath the posts.

Sale then suffered two blows in fast succession. First, Curry limped off to get replaced by his brother Ben, earlier than Pollard decreased the arrears together with his third penalty.

With the final transfer of a wide ranging first-half, Sale collected their bonus level when a pumped-up Ford despatched Du Preez over earlier than changing to depart his facet with a deserved 26-16 half-time benefit.

Sale started the second half strongly however crucially missed a few alternatives to attain and so they have been made to pay when Hassell-Collins collected a cross-field kick from Pollard to complete in type.

Minutes later, Hassell-Collins scored his second when he latched onto a stray move to bemuse the guests’ defence with a mazy run to the road.

Pollard transformed however Ford kicked a penalty to depart Sale trailing by only a level with 18 minutes remaining.

The sport was within the stability however Sale have been turning into error-prone and ill-disciplined and it value them as Ilione completed off a driving line-out however the guests instantly replied with a second strive for Du Preez.

Within the ultimate minute, Sale lock Jonny Hill was sin-binned and Tigers took full benefit when Ilione once more completed off a driving line-out to depart Sale with only a single level.

Sky Sports activities will solely present the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Exams towards the Wallabies and 6 warm-up matches to be proven solely stay.