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Rumours link Steve Diamond with Northern raid

By Paul Smith
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Newly-appointed Worcester Warriors director of rugby Steve Diamond has been linked with a raid on his former club Sale Sharks’ playing resources.

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And according to the Rugby Paper the former hooker is looking closely at his Manchester-based Premiership rivals’ South African contingent in an attempt to beef up his forward pack.

“We need to add to the pack, there isn’t enough ‘bump’ if I am honest, but everyone will be given a fair crack at the whip so we will see what we have in the next month or six weeks,” Diamond is quoted as saying.

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Wales coach Wayne Pivac & skipper Dan Biggar preview Six Nations

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Wales coach Wayne Pivac & skipper Dan Biggar preview Six Nations

The story goes on to identify a number of possible targets including Jean-Luc and Dan Du Preez. In addition, hooker Akker van der Merwe, whose Scottish international brother Duhan joined Worcester from Edinburgh after playing a prominent role in the British & Irish Lions’ summer tour to the land of his birth, is named as a possible Diamond target.

Another name mentioned was 27-year-old flanker Cameron Nield who began his career as a hooker prior to making a successful switch to the back row that has seen him make 120 appearances for the Sharks.

Diamond, who took the reins at Worcester after last week’s departure of head coach Jonathan Thomas, was in charge of his first game last weekend when the Warriors slipped to a 13-29 home defeat to Northampton Saints.

Even though Bath have won twice in recent weeks, he absence of relegation means perennial top flight strugglers Worcester have some breathing space in which to make some changes.

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However, Diamond is also mindful that recent big reductions to the salary cap mean he will have to concentrate on finding new talent in addition to signing established names from the Southern Hemisphere and rival Premiership clubs.

The veteran former hooker has previously proved his ability to operate in this manner when bringing the likes of Valery Morozov and Andrei Ostrikov to Sale.

“We have to realise that the salary cap has come down significantly and when I was recruiting three or four years ago we had a lot more money to spend and it was easier,” he said.

“So now we have to be smart in our recruitment; find those hidden gems in the Championship or lower and even in Eastern Europe or wherever my contacts are and get them well coached.

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“I know how to do that, i am confident putting together a highly competitive squad in the competition.

“We certainly have the full cap available to us and part of my role going forward will be to utilise that cap and decide what we can bring in.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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