England coaches watch on as Sale Sharks kick off Champions Cup in style

England coaches Kevin Sinfield and Richard Wigglesworth watched on as Sale Sharks overcame Stade Francais 28-5 in their opening Champions Cup pool fixture in Salford.

The Premiership leaders proved too good for the Paris outfit as they ran out comfortable winners in the end on Sunday to start their group campaign in style.

Sinfield and Wigglesworth were in the stands looking over the likes of George Ford, Manu Tuilagi and others, with the aforementioned duo having solid games in this Champions Cup success.

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The Sharks edged a feisty opening period 6-5 with two Ford penalties eclipsing a well-worked score from Stade Francais skipper and centre Jeremy Ward.

England fly-half Ford landed a third kick from a scrum penalty before Sale extended their lead by finding space for wing Tom O’Flaherty to touch down.

Sale’s forward power told in the final quarter as replacement scrum-half Raffi Quirke freed lock Jonny Hill into the corner and Tom Curtis added the extras.

Player of the match, blindside flank Sam Dugdale, put the gloss on victory by crashing over six minutes from time, with Curtis again adding the conversion.

Sale missed out on a fourth try and bonus point in the final minutes of the game ahead of a visit to four-time European champions Leinster next weekend.

Meanwhile, Top 14 outfit Stade Francais play host to Leicester Tigers next Sunday as they look to bounce back from this opening loss to the European season.

The teams

Sale Sharks: 15 Joe Carpenter, 14 Tom Roebuck, 13 Sam James, 12 Manu Tuilagi, 11 Arron Reed, 10 George Ford, 9 Gus Warr, 8 Dan du Preez, 7 Ben Curry (c), 6 Sam Dugdale, 5 Jonny Hill, 4 Ben Bamber, 3 Nick Schonert, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Si McIntyre
Replacements: 16 Agustin Creevy, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Asher Opoku-Fordjour, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Josh Beaumont, 21 Raffi Quirke, 22 Tom Curtis, 23 Connor Doherty

Stade Francais: 15 Leo Barre, 14 Kylan Hamdaoui, 13 Jeremy Ward (c), 12 Pierre Boudehent, 11 Peniasi Dakuwaqa, 10 Joris Segonds, 9 Hugo Zabalza, 8 Mathieu Hirigoyen, 7 Ryan Chapuis, 6 Julien Ory, 5 JJ van der Mescht, 4 Pierre-Henri Azagoh, 3 Paul Alo-Emile, 2 Lucas Peyresblanques, 1 Clement Castets
Replacements: 16 Mamoudou Meite, 17 Sergo Abramishvili, 18 Francisco Gomez Kodela, 19 Paul Gabrillagues, 20 Baptiste Pesenti, 21 Jules Gimbert, 22 Tanginoa Halaifonua, 23 Lester Etien

Referee: Mike Adamson (Sco)
Assistant Referees: Ian Kenny (Sco), Jonny Perriam (Sco)
TMO: David Sutherland (Sco)

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