Sale managed to take the lead in the first half with a well-worked try from England's Jason Robinson but after that it was virtually all one-way traffic as Austin Healey, Daryl Gibson, Leon Lloyd (two) and England World Cup winner Neil Back (two) touched down.

Steve Hanley and Scott Benton crossed in the second half but given Leicesters superiority the match was effectively over with Lloyds try a minute after the interval.
Leicester head coach John Wells declared a mission accomplished.

The pressure on us towards the end of the season has all been about the qualifying, said Wells.

The talk since I took over has been about getting the club back into Europe given our poor league position. We have done a good job in achieving our goal.