Gregor Hiddleston went over for Glasgow's first try

Warriors had to recover from 14-0 down with tries from hooker Gregor Hiddleston, flanker Rory Darge, wing Kyle Steyn and centre Stafford McDowall.

Ernst van Rhyn, Ollie Davies and Marius Louw were Sale's try scorers as they secured a losing bonus-point as consolation.

With just two minutes on the clock, Van Rhyn powered over from close range and with Rob du Preez's conversion, the home side had a 7-0 lead.

They made it two tries on the 20-minute mark. Scotland international Arron Reed put Champions Cup debutant Davies, over for just three minutes after coming on as a replacement. Du Preez slotted the conversion.

Glasgow did finally manage to get into the game after 20 minutes when a driving maul went over the line and Hiddleston was the man in possession.

Then just before half-time, Darge fought his way to the line after a series of carries from the Warriors and with the conversion.

Glasgow went in front two minutes into the second half when Steyn sliced through some poor tackling to put his side 19-14 up with the conversion.

Gaps continued to open in the Sale defence and McDowall made them pay as he slipped through their line to pick up Glasgow's bonus-point try.

Louw barged his way over 10 minutes later to reduce the margin to just five points, but Glasgow saw out the game and take maximum points from the opening pool clash, setting them up nicely for next week's Scotstoun clash with Toulouse.

"It's huge," captain Kyle Steyn said of the result. "It's a really tough place to come and play, down here at Sale. After last week's defeat in the URC [against Scarlets], the boys were really keen to bounce back and I'm really proud of them, especially our big boys up front."