Sale Sharks beat champions Leicester Tigers to move top of the Premiership.

Raffi Quirke created a try for Tom Curry then went over himself as Sharks piled misery on a Tigers side thumped 51-18 by Saracens last week.

Sale kept Leicester scoreless after the break as they made it four league wins from four to start the season.

Handing Tigers their first Premiership defeat at Mattioli Woods Welford Road this season - and first for 490 days - leaves Leicester sixth in the table and sends the Sharks four points clear at the summit.

Saracens, however, can return to the top with victory against Newcastle on Sunday.

After an early Burns penalty, a fine individual finish from Roebuck - which saw him wriggle out of attempted tackles from Burns and Harry Potter - edged the the visitors ahead.

Fly-half Du Preez's failure to convert the try allowed Burns to restore Tigers' lead with another penalty minutes later, the fly-half further extending the hosts' advantage with another successful kick midway through the first half.

South Africa back-rower Wiese, back from international duty along with Argentina hooker Julian Montoya, made a typically big impression in his first Tigers outing of the season.

After a thumping tackle from Manu Tuilagi stopped Potter from scoring for Tigers, Wiese collected the ball to cross in the corner for Leicester's only try of the day.

But Sale hit back in style, with a between-the-legs pass from scrum-half Gus Warr which bamboozled Tigers' defence, setting Du Preez up for Sharks' second score.

Fit-again scrum-half Quirke, who came off the bench for his first appearance since April following a hamstring injury, slipped through a gap to set up Curry for the first five-pointer of the second half before then going over himself to help make it 26-16 with 21 minutes left.

Tigers' rarely threatened to mount a comeback in another underwhelming performance from the 11-time champions, but it remained tense as Du Preez missed a late penalty that would have made the bonus-point victory more comfortable for Sale.

Leicester Tigers: Steward; Potter, Scott, Gopperth, Nadolo; Burns, Wigglesworth; Cronin, Montoya, Cole; Wells, Green; Martin, Liebenberg, Wiese.

Replacements: Clare, Leatigaga, Heyes, Snyman, Cracknell, Van Poortvliet, Cokanasiga, Watson.

Sale Sharks: Carpenter; Roebuck, James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R du Preez, Warr; Rodd, Van der Merwe, Schonert; Wiese, J Hill; Ross, T Curry, JL du Preez.

Replacements: Ashman, McIntyre, Oosthuizen, Beaumont, Dugdale, Quirke, S Hill, Reed.

Referee: Luke Pearce.