New Sale boss Pete Anglesea admitted his side were affected by "off-field matters" after the Sharks were thrashed by Leicester.
New Sale coach says side were affected by off-field issues
New Sale boss Pete Anglesea admitted that his side had been affected by "off-field matters" after the Sharks were thrashed 54-21 by Leicester on Monday.
Anglesea recently took the reins after previous head coach Mike Brewer was sacked following four consecutive losses in all competitions.
But his first match in charge ended in a thumping defeat as the Tigers raced out to a 21-point lead in the opening 13 minutes and did not look back.
Leicester were without the services of several England stars but still managed to run in eight tries, with Manu Tuilagi and Scott Hamilton grabbing two each.
Anglesea thinks that the recent turmoil, which included reports of player unrest before Brewer's sacking, contributed to the collapse but is keen to take a clean slate into the next match against Saracens.
"My job starts here. This was a benchmark for me to see the state of our position," Anglesea said.
Confidence
"We have got to get some confidence in our team. Welford Road is a very hard place to find confidence and it was very frustrating watching the boys out there.
"Obviously in the first 20 minutes they seemed to be affected by the off-field matters and heads went down.
"However we scored three nice tries and some of the senior players will have to take on more responsibility as it is a mammoth task and I would urge all supporters to get behind the team."
Leicester coach Richard Cockerill was pleased to secure a bonus-point victory but still believes there is room for improvement after seeing the Tigers concede three tries.
He said: "It is a difficult time of year and with them losing their coach we didn't know what to expect from them.
"It was a big start from us with three tries but we went somewhat off the boil from there. We are delighted with the five-point win, the boys took their scoring opportunities, but conceding three tries was not great."
Leicester captain Geordan Murphy added: "We got a lot of quick ball this week which enabled us to play some quality rugby. Last week against Perpignan (when the Tigers drew) we had to operate with slow ball."
