Ben Youngs scored the only try of Friday’s game from an attacking lineout and George Ford kicked the rest of the points with five penalties, including two won by the Tigers scrum.
Slater, who was the Aviva Man of the Match on his first start of the season, said: “We pride ourselves on our set-piece. The scrum was massive for us. Castro did a really good job, Tom Youngs led the hit and it was up to the back five to push through. With the penalties we got, that was massive for the final result.
“At the lineout, we won a lot of clean ball and I think we defended their lineout quite well.”
Slater also pointed to the Tigers defence, which prevented Sale scoring any points in the final 65 minutes of the game despite some heavy pressure from the hosts and a period when Leicester were down to 14 men with the sin-binning of Vereniki Goneva.
“The first half in particular we defended really well,” he said. “Ben Youngs said that at one point we defended for 30 phases in a row. Our fitness was really good, we looked strong and fair play to Sale, they really gave it a crack.
“It was a really tough game. It felt in the first half that we were defending for a long time. To come out in the second half, get on top, get ahead and get the win was pleasing for us.”
