Leicester Tigers 35 Sale Sharks 27: Marland Yarde scores and is sin-binned on debut in niggly encounter

Marland Yarde had a debut to remember for Sale Sharks in this testy affair at Welford Road, getting involved in an off-the-ball confrontation with the Leicester Tigers loose-head prop Ellis Genge.

Just a day after England’s 30-6 Test win over Australia, the message sent to Eddie Jones by the likes of Genge and Yarde was, ‘Hey, Eddie, look at me!”

It was an eventful match for both players. Genge, who was a replacement at Twickenham last weekend, put in a try-scoring, all-action man-of-the-match performance and gave Leicester the abrasive edge they needed to overcome Sale after being 20-22 down at half-time.

Genge scored Leicester's second try and impressed head coach Matt O’Connor with the way he moved on from the frustration of missing out on England honours against the Wallabies.

“He was obviously very disappointed," said O'Connor.

"He probably did enough to justify being on the bench against the Aussies yesterday. But I’m sure he will be back involved with England again soon. He was really keen to play today.

“He is a class act, he didn’t have a lot of time in the environment this week because he was with England but he came back and was incredibly keen to play and a few things we had going on in the front row, he had to start and he did a great job for us. He is carrying, his scrummaging is world class.”

O'Connor was correct about Genge: he has indeed been named in the squad for next weekend's match against Samoa.

Yarde has caused controversy by his mid-season transfer from Harlequins, with former club-mate and England senior player Chris Robshaw an open critic. But Yarde made a number of impressive bursts to give Sale strong territory and tackled hard.

The 25-year-old also dotted down for Sale’s third of the first half after flanker Ben Curry and centre Mark Jennings went over to give their side a positive start.

Discipline, however, was the undoing of Sale. They conceded 19 penalties to Leicester's four, with Yarde a notable culprit.

Referee Luke Pearce gave the player two warnings but Yarde was eventually sent to the sin bin for the final seven minutes for a high tackle. Ben Curry was also yellow carded.

Yarde was beaten by Leicester centre Mark Jennings for the Tigers' third try. Australian sevens Olympian Nick Malouf, a new signing for this season, went over in the closing minutes to ensure a bonus point win for his side.