Tom Curry and Raffi Quirke returned to the Sale Sharks side on Sunday as Alex Sanderson made four changes to his XV for the visit of Leicester Tigers at 3pm.

Sale were on live TNT Sports against a Leicester team still chasing the play-offs, with Curry starting his first game since the January defeat to Northampton Saints and Quirke coming in at scrum-half alongside George Ford at fly-half. Luke James also returned to the starting XV for the first time since November, replacing Marius Louw at outside centre, while Alfie Longstaff kept his place after scoring two tries in his first two games.

Sanderson’s reshuffle came after Friday’s defeat at Gloucester, and it brought James Harper into the front row, Asher Opoku-Fordjour switching from tighthead to loosehead, and Ernst van Rhyn moving back into the second row to partner Ben Bamber. Joe Carpenter continued at full-back, with Tom O’Flaherty and Tom Roebuck on the wings.

The bench was named with a 5-3 split, as Wills Austin, Patreece Bell, Ralph McEachran, Hyron Andrews, Seb Kelly, Gus Warr, Ollie Davies and Arron Reed were listed among the replacements. That selection underlined how quickly Sale had to reset after Gloucester, with two senior players back in the spine of the side and a reworked pack asked to respond immediately.

The return of Curry and Quirke gives Sale a sharper look after the Friday setback, but the longer test is whether the new XV can translate those changes into a result against play-off chasing Leicester.