Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika has reacted to the Gallagher Premiership round 7 loss to Sale Sharks.

"When you get to this block of the competition there's a lot more urgency around things. We did good work in some patches but, for us, the fundamentals of our game weren't there.

"The scrum, conceded far too many penalties there, the maul we were dominated in and defensively we weren't at our level.

"Therefore, once those things are in place, it doesn't matter how good your attack is or whatever as those other fundamentals are the basis of our game.

"No excuses - this is what's required in this section of the company. What got us here in the first block is not what is going to get us to where we need to be at the end of the second block. 

"It can be a positive thing for us to understand there's another level we've got to climb up to and be regular at because tonight, although we had some moments where we are ok, we had many were we were not good enough.

"We had momentum early on and probably needed to score another try. Then when they had momentum, we didn't do enough to stem that. We had a couple of opportunities and we had a couple of slips in the weather but everything counts: they are the conditions you've got to play in.

"It's a good lesson for us to receive, that it's time to front up a bit in the physicality of the game and in the fundamentals." 

Attention for Cheika and his men now turns to the Investec Champions Cup. Their continental campaign gets underway next weekend with a trip to the south of France to battle Bordeaux Bègles before returning to Leicester to welcome the Springbok stars of the Hollywoodbets Sharks to Mattioli Woods Welford Road.