Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond was delighted with the efforts of hat-trick hero Marland Yarde following their dominant 36-3 triumph over Leicester at the AJ Bell Stadium.

The England wing endured a tough year after sustaining a horrific knee injury in October 2018 but, after returning to action, the former Harlequins man has gradually re-found his feet.

Yarde was in outstanding form on Friday, finishing his three tries superbly as the Sharks moved up to second in the Gallagher Premiership table.

Diamond said: "We've got four good wingers in Denny (Solomona), Marland, Ashy (Chris Ashton) and Byron (McGuigan) and to stay in the spot you've got to score tries, and I can't see him being dropped.

"I'm happy with where we're at. We've still got a lot of work to do, we showed our frailties last week and we played the conditions a lot better today, so we've learnt from it.

"We've got five or six lads to come back in - both Currys, Lood De Jager, Faf (De Klerk), Rohan (Janse Van Rensburg), so we've got some strength to come in over the next two, three or four weeks."

Sale also have a core of academy players coming through and Diamond is pleased with the balance of the squad.

He added: "We've got a plethora off young kids in Reedy (Arron Reed), Tom Curtis and (Gus) Warr, who came on with 10 minutes to go for some invaluable experience.

"We'll also be announcing three signings over the next two or three weeks who are internationals.

"I'm glad we've got two good investors, it's the first time we've ever gone anywhere near the salary cap and you can see the difference in the results."