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Steve Diamond breaks silence, criticises Lam, Monye and Solomons as RFU report 'exonerates' Sale
Sale boss Steve Diamond has hailed the RFU’s soon-to-be-published investigation into last month’s coronavirus outbreak at the Sharks which exonerates the club from misbehaviour. Instead, a false negative was central to the outbreak which ultimately affected 27 people at the club, and Diamond has now criticised Pat Lam, Ugo Monye and Alan Solomons for things they alleged about players partying following their Premiership Cup win.
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Sale’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the restarted 2019/20 Premiership season fell at the last hurdle, the club’s round 22 match against Worcester initially being postponed before getting cancelled, a decision that allowed fourth-place Bath to instead contest the knockout stages.
Six weeks later, with the RFU report into their Sale investigation due to be published on Tuesday afternoon, Diamond has spoken for the first time since their season-ending cancellation, expressing his delight that his players were absolved of allegations that they had been partying in the wake of their September Premiership Cup final win over Harlequins which was alleged by critics to be the supposed reason for the mass outbreak.
Speaking ahead of the report’s publication and next Friday’s new season opener for Sale at home to Northampton, Diamond said: “Quite rightly we were cleared by the RFU. The judgment isn’t out until this afternoon but that appears to be the decision.
“I’m philosophical about it really. Obviously, we had a mass outbreak so they have got to have a look at it. I’m just a bit disappointed with rugby in general really over the event where Pat Lam, Ugo Moyne, Alan Solomons all jumped in on these false allegations that we were partying in the inner city and the student areas of Manchester, which was a real poor thing to say with no evidence and was factually incorrect.
The Sale man spoke to the media this weekend about the incident. pic.twitter.com/trEeEpgSZf
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 5, 2020
“I’m disappointed with them. I thought rugby had a bit more about it. Maybe I’m one of them blokes who is too old school, that we believe these qualities are there, that you don’t do each other on the slightest thing, but obviously not. The world’s changed a little bit, so a bit disappointed about that. But delighted that the decisions that have come, that we have been exonerated. There are some issues no doubt in the report that will be advisory and will be advisories for all clubs.
“I knew when I went on BT and said that none of our players had been out into Manchester, it just didn’t happen. I knew that was the case then. What we have done since is put it to bed. We have not really talked about it at work.
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“We managed to get four weeks off which was the positive of it and we have trained for two weeks pretty hard. It’s one of those things, it’s a peculiar year and we move on. Hopefully we can get this season started on Friday and crack on. Hopefully some normality will return in the new year.”
Sale, whose squad were tested on Tuesday morning as part of Premiership Rugby’s weekly testing, are said by Diamond to currently be symptom-free ahead of Friday night’s 2020/21 kick-off. However, while the RFU investigation has now exonerated them of wrongdoing, Diamond isn’t waiting for his phone to ring with apologies from people who said untrue things about them.
“To be fair, I don’t need apologies. My core values of rugby are like general life, that if you are going to jump on the back of something without any evidence you generally come unstuck. What I was able to do immediately, without ringing the squad up, was to make a candid honest decision on TV to say this never happened.
“We run an environment of a good time, good craic but there is people dying. We were in a position where we had won a cup final, we didn’t deny we had a couple of beers within the group. But when the aspersions are made that we were in the university grounds and in the inner city when there was a terrible outbreak in Manchester at that time, it was a classic, uneducated people putting two and two together and coming out with completely the wrong number and none of them, up until twenty-five to twelve today (at the time of his interview) have had the balls to say sorry we shouldn’t have said that.
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“That is down to them and I’m not going to fall out with them at all. It is how they choose to be but for me, we just get on with it. I have learned a lot through it. I have learned that rugby sort of prides itself some of the time and it is kidding itself that we’re all in it together and let’s stay strong.
“As soon as people saw a chink, or what they thought was a chink in our armour, they attacked it for their own reasons and that was disappointing, whether it was notoriety on TV as a presenter or whether it was fellow directors of rugby who incidentally I have a good relationship with.”
"This is devastating for Sale"https://t.co/UNgxPnCU9e
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) October 7, 2020
Asked why there was such a pile-on regarding the alleged misconduct of Sale, Diamond added: “Maybe it’s over the last 20 years, maybe it was directed at me. Hey listen, people choose to do what they do when they are under pressure. What happened to us could have happened to anybody. It happened to Wasps to a lesser extent and it has recently happened to Leicester. What we did was we went through the regulations and we did not set the regulations. The regulations are set by the professional game board.
“We went through those regs and in my opinion, running this place, we didn’t flout those regulations. That does not say there aren’t half a dozen, a dozen things that can’t be better. For example, we had four toilets in a toilet (block) and only one of them was masked out. It should have been two. Now I don’t think that is the heinous crime they were trying to find.
“People came in with professors in white coats and the RFU head of discipline David Barnes, when they interviewed twelve of our players for half an hour each, let’s be honest, you can’t tell twelve people to say the same things. They answered honestly.
“There are some recommendations that we openly say yeah you’re right, we can look better at that. We have also given them lots of food to think about. We have come out of a lockdown in spring which was a fantastic spring, March and April were cracking weather. We’re now in a lockdown in the poorest weather so it means people do gravitate inside the buildings and things like that.
“There is a lot of learning gone on. We had another local authority investigation last week and they passed us with flying colours. The players are in an upbeat mood. We are slightly worried that they have not even mentioned when can we have a social because we are not even talking about that. We are talking about getting three, four games under our belt and we’ll have a craic somewhere if the regulations allow us to and if the lockdown is relaxed on December 2.”
— Sale Sharks ? (@SaleSharksRugby) November 9, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Super rugby is struggling but that has little to do with sabbaticals. 1. Too many teams from Aust and NZ - should be 3 and 4 respectively, add in 2 from Japan, 1 possibly 2 from Argentina. 2. Inconsistent and poor refereeing, admittedly not restricted to Super rugby. Only one team was reffed at the breakdown in Reds v H’Landers match. Scrum penalty awarded in Canes v Drua when No 8 had the ball in the open with little defence nearby - ideal opportunity to play advantage. Coming back to Reds match - same scrum situation but ref played advantage - Landers made 10 yards and were penalised at the breakdown when the ref should have returned to scrum penalty. 3. Marketing is weak and losing ground to AFL and NRL. Playing 2 days compared with 4. 4. Scheduling is unattractive to family attendance. Have any franchises heard of Sundays 2pm?
8 Go to commentsAbsolutely..all they need is a chance in yhe playoffs and I bet all the other teams will be nervous…THEY KNOW HOW TO WIN IM THE PLAYOFFS..
2 Go to commentsI really hope he comes back and helps out with some coaching.
1 Go to commentsI think we are all just hoping that the Olympic 7s doesn’t suffer the same sad fate as the last RWC with the officials ruining the spectacle.
1 Go to commentsPersonally, I’ve lost the will to even be bothered about the RFU, the structure, the participants. It’s all a sham. I now simply enjoy getting a group of friends together to go and watch a few games a year in different locations (including Europe, the championship, etc). I feel extremely sorry for the real fans of these clubs who are constantly ignored by the RFU and other administrators. I feel especially sorry for the fans of clubs in the Championship who have had considerable central funding stripped away and are then expected to just take whatever the RFU put to them. Its all a sham, especially if the failed clubs are allowed to return.
9 Go to commentsI’m guessing Carl Hayman would have preferred to have stayed in NZ with benefit of hindsight. Up north there is the expectation to play twice as many games with far less ‘player management’ protocols that Paul is now criticising. Less playing through concussions means longer, healthier, careers. Carter used as the eg here by Paul, his sabbatical allowed him to play until age 37. OK its not an exact science but there is far more expectations on players who sign for Top 14 or Engl Prem clubs to get value for the huge salaries. NZR get alot wrong but keeping their best players in NZ rugby is not one of them. SA clubs are virtually devoid of their top players now, no thanks. They cant threaten the big teams in the Champions Cup, the squads have little depth. Cant see Canes/Chiefs struggling. Super has been great this year, fantastic high skill matches. Drua a fantastic addition and Jaguares will add another quality team eventually. Aus teams performing strongly and no doubt will benefit with the incentive of a Lions tour and a home RWC. Let Jordie enjoy his time with Leinster, it will allow the opportunity for another player to emerge at Canes in his absence.
8 Go to commentsLove that man, his way to despise angry little men is so funny ! 😂
4 Go to comments“South African franchises would be powerhouses if we had all our overseas based players back in situ. We would have the same unbeatable aura the Toulouses, Leinsters or Saracens of this world have had over the last decade or so.” Proof that Jake white does not understand the economics of the game in SA. Players earning abroad are not going to simply come back and represent the bulls. But they might if they have a springbok contract.
22 Go to commentsA lot of fans just joined in for the fun of it! We all admire O'Gara and what he has done for La Rochelle
4 Go to commentsThe RFU will find a way to mess this up as usual. My bet is there will be no promotion into the the Premiership, only relegation into National League One. Hopefully they won’t parachute failed clubs into the league at the expense of clubs who have battled for promotion.
9 Go to commentsWell that’s the contracts for RG and Jordie bought and paid for. Now, what are the chances we can persuade Antoine to hop over with all the extra dosh we’ll have from living at the Aviva & Croke next season…??? 🤑🤑🤑
16 Go to commentsWow, that’s incredible. Great for rugby.
16 Go to commentsYou probably read that parling is going to coach the wallaby lineout but if not before now you have.
14 Go to commentsIf someone like Leo Cullen was in O’Gara’s place I don’t hear Boo-ing. It’s not just that La Rochelle has hurt Leinster and O’Gara is their Irish boss. It’s the needle that he brings and the pantomime activity before the game around pretending that Munster were supporting LaRochelle just because O’Gara is from Cork. That’s dividing Irish provinces just to get an advantage for his French Team. He can F*ck right off with that. BOOOOO! (but not while someone is lying injured)
4 Go to commentsDid the highlanders party too hard before the game? They were the pits.
1 Go to commentsWhat a player! Not long until he’s in the England side, surely?
5 Go to commentsHe seems to have the same aura as Marcus Smith - by which I mean he’s consistently judged as if he’s several years younger than he actually is. Mngomezulu has played 24 times for the Stormers. When Pollard was his age he had played 24 times for South Africa! He has more time to develop, but he has also had time to do some developing already, and he hasn’t demonstrated nearly as much talent in that time as one would expect. If he is a generational talent, then it must be a pretty poor generation.
6 Go to commentsThe 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.
22 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
22 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.
8 Go to comments