'It will be one of those years where for the next 20, 30 years we will be talking about - do you remember the Covid? - for all the wrong reasons'
Marshalling a Covid crisis wasn’t the weekend drama Sale boss Steve Diamond envisaged unfolding. The breezy early October script was for Sharks to go out on Sunday, do the business against Worcester and qualify for a first Premiership semi-final since 2006, the only year they have lifted English rugby’s most prestigious trophy.
Eight years Diamond has been at the helm in Manchester, taking over in October 2012 from Bryan Redpath and pouring his heart and soul into trying to make his local club beat the odds.
Two 10ths, an 8th, two 7ths and a pair of 6th place finishes had been his lot until now, a season where Sale would enter the final round of fixtures lying in fourth spot after 13 wins in 21 outings and with their play-off destiny in their own hands.
That tantalising prospect meant Diamond was in his element when he checked in with a media Zoom call at noon on Thursday, never in the slightest imagining the Sale medical emergency that would soon unfold. The mood was sweetness and light for 20-plus minutes.
There was a reflection on the six-month Manu Tuilagi injury, his call for Luke James to be selected by England, how Sale were “battening down the hatches” in adjusting life without fans at games, and even a few jibes about how he might offer some journalists a wheelbarrow gig on the building sites given how there might not be any professional rugby to report on in twelve months due to the financial ravages of Covid on the sport.
Steve Diamond reveals just how bad Manu Tuilagi’s injury is. pic.twitter.com/ZhGlzXjXMK
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 1, 2020
This tongue-in-cheek alternative employment jab from Diamond was met with some giggles but the virus was soon no laughing matter regarding Sale. After a Friday of claim, counter-claim and much speculation about Sale’s involvement in Super Sunday, a resolution emerged just before 3pm on Saturday and Sharks were handed a reprieve. Instead of the cancellation that would eliminate them from the play-off picture, their fixture against Worcester would now be delayed until Wednesday.
Not ideal in the context of going on and preparing for a semi-final next weekend, but an unexpected lifeline given the extent of how Covid had inculcated itself in the Sale squad. It, of course, arrived with red tape attached.
Additional testing, a refusal to register new players, a track and trace audit. But better that than nothing in the striking circumstances where Diamond went from chirpily talking on Thursday about Covid being something very much outside the Sale bubble to now being a pest suddenly threatening to undo months and years of hard work at the club.
Unlike in France, where three of the Top 14’s opening 21 matches fell victim to the virus and Racing’s isolation is now affecting their Champions Cup final preparations, or in South Africa, where participation in the PRO14 has been shelved entirely until 2021 due to travel restrictions, the Premiership had been coping mighty fine with keeping the virus at bay.
In the 15 rounds of Premiership-monitored testing between early July and September 22, there were only 66 positives among players and staff (43 players) from a whopping total of 14,560 tests, a tiny 0.45 per cent. Such was the wolf-is-long-gone-from-the-door atmosphere that took hold that Exeter boss Rob Baxter even suggested there were genuine medical reasons to discontinue the routine weekly testing.
By the close of business last Wednesday night, the Premiership had every reason to feel chuffed. Eight of the nine rounds of back matches – 48 games – had just been completed, leaving just nine more fixtures – round 22 and the playoffs – remaining to be played to bring to a conclusion a 2019/20 season that few last March would have believed would be successfully restarted and concluded.
Diamond was among those most pleased, embracing a question on Thursday from RugbyPass on how much of an achievement it would be to get the season finished after the bleakness of the lockdown. “All credit has to go, certainly in our league, to Premier Rugby,” he enthused at the time. “All the games have been completed apart from this last round. It has been very difficult I must admit, home and away.
CLUB STATMENT | COVID 19 Outbreak – The club can confirm its Gallagher Premiership round 22 match with @WorcsWarriors has been postponed until Wednesday 7th October 2020.
Read more here ? https://t.co/A4ITbEwdNC
— Sale Sharks? (@SaleSharksRugby) October 3, 2020
“Franklin’s Gardens (where Sale had played last Tuesday night) is too nice a place and too good a facility not to have any people in it. It’s sad. It’s like walking into a graveyard, so that has been an experience. It has helped us. We have won six away games, we haven’t done that for about 20 years I don’t think. But they have done a great job, the league, of getting it on. All the protocols we are going through and everything, it’s been a peculiar time.
“It will be remembered for all of us who have been through this. It will be one of those years where for the next 20, 30 years we will be talking about – do you remember the Covid? – for all the wrong reasons. Fortunately, I have not had anybody close to me who has been poorly with it but you can see what’s happening around the country and the rate of infections going up. We have to keep doing this until it’s right to stop it [taking precautions].”
Famous last words and all that given what played out in the subsequent 48 hours. Northampton’s game at Gloucester was cancelled, the Kingsholm club awarded a 20-0 bonus-point win, while Sale’s Saturday statement didn’t confirm the alleged extent of how badly they were affected, their update instead curiously accentuating how all is apparently well despite Premiership Rugby later confirming that 21 people of out 972 (18 players, 3 staff) tested positive across three different clubs in Thursday’s latest round of league testing.
“Sale would like to reassure its supporters that all of the club’s players and staff are currently well,” read the club statement, Sharks adding that were in a position to fulfil the game against Worcester as scheduled on Sunday but were complying with Public Health England advice to postpone for four days.
It’s a compromise that should appease Diamond in the sense that Sale can now only lose their play-off spot on the pitch and not in sickbay as was feared. “I don’t mind losing,” he said Thursday before the narrative changed. “There is a bit of a misconception. If we are beaten by a better team who pull out the plays and beat us then I accept it all of the time but a couple of games we have lost where we have given 13, 15, 18, 20 penalties away, it’s just not acceptable.
“That is the bit that frustrates you and there’s not much you can do about it. All you can do is do those basics again every week. If anybody looked at our training sessions you would not believe it. It’s like an U10s training session of what we concentrate on and by doing that it has got us in touching distance of the top four, so I don’t see why we would not continue doing that?”
But only when it is safe to do so. If this past 48 hours has taught Premiership clubs anything it’s that there are no guarantees in this game at the moment, not with a sport-wrecking pandemic lurking and ready to do its damnedest to ruin the spectacle.
BREAKING https://t.co/xHEfErNcbk
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 3, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
The greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
15 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
15 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
15 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
15 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to comments