Leicester director of rugby Dean Richards lost 10 members of his squad to the England training camp at the beginning of the week, but insisted it was not an excuse for losing their second game of the season this evening.

Second-half tries from Nick Walsh and lock Chris Jones, his a galloping 50-metre solo effort, took the Sale Sharks to a hard-earned 29-16 victory on the back of an impressive defence and a faultless kicking display from Charlie Hodgson.

When the England fly-half converted Walsh's try, the Sharks led 19-6, only for Leicester to throw on the big guns from the bench in an attempt to claw back the deficit.

It worked to an extent as the Tigers pressurised the Sharks' line and brought themselves within three points of the hosts, before Jones broke free.

Hodgson then converted and added a fifth penalty to finish with 19 points and condemned Leicester to a second defeat in three games.

England forwards Neil Back, Dorien West and Graham Rowntree were all introduced late from the bench, but Richards felt he had no option but to name them amongst the replacements.

"(The England training session) did have a bearing but I don't think that it's an excuse for losing," he said.

"It was the only way we could prepare for the game tonight. We trained with these guys on Monday and Tuesday and felt everybody deserved and needed a rest on Wednesday, which only left Thursday's training session. I don't think that was the reason we lost."

He added: "We put a lot of pressure on and let them back in and it comes back to decision making. I think we have to look at our decision making in certain areas."

Sale Sharks coach Jim Mallinder put tonight's victory down to the "heart of the players" and reserved special praise for the contribution of man of the match Jones.

"I think we worked hard in our organisation and it was a performance from the heart," he said.

"Jones has got that ability when he is in open country. It was quite impressive.

"People who don't really know him say that if he puts three or four stone on he will suddenly become a real powerhouse second row. But he has got something that other second rows haven't got.

"Round the field he is an athlete and he's got a massive engine."

The Sharks were soundly beaten last week at Gloucester but the opportunity to face Leicester in front of a sell-out crowd helped inspire the players to a dramatic improvement.

"We got the defeat out of our system on Monday," he said.

"We had a down to earth session and we looked at where we went wrong and the lads were very critical of themselves. really. You've got to look forward. It was a fantastic game to get ourselves up for and thankfully we managed it.

"It was a very good atmosphere. It's great to see this ground full and turning people away."