Diamond keeping in-form Sale focused

Editor

Sale boss Steve Diamond wants his players to enjoy the weekend and then get back to work ahead of visiting Leicester.

Saturday's comfortable win over London Irish moves Sale up to seventh in the Premiership, level on points with Northampton Saints.

"Overall I was very pleased with our performance," Diamond said.

"I thought we handled the conditions and the elements really well and we probably left two or three tries out there.

"What we've got is a good team spirit and we are sticking to the plan. Right now we are putting teams away which is good and converting what we do in practice into a game day.

"The players are actually becoming easier to coach as they are doing it themselves which is a really encouraging sign. What we we can't do is get too cocky as we've got to go to Leicester next week, but I've told the players to enjoy the rest of the weekend."

Diamond also singled out winger Nev Edwards for praise after his brace of tries.

"Nev does all that we ask of him," he added. "Playing with a back-line like we have and being coached the way he has been, he's finding openings and he's a good player so we're really pleased with him.

"He's been a very good find for us and has really taken his chance here."

London Irish boss Tom Coventry meanwhile was left wondering whether he'd made a mistake by resting several first-team players over the last two weeks when the Exiles were playing in the Challenge Cup.

"It was a backward step today," Coventry said.

"There have been some highlights over the past few weeks but today was certainly not one of those.

"I thought we did okay up until half-time but I don't think we ever had any control of the match and Sale were definitely more physical than us in most phases of the game.

"Many of our guys had had a couple of weeks off to freshen them up and maybe we freshened them up too much as they played like they were short of a run.

"We are conscious of how poor we were and there's already been a few words said about the importance of next week when we play Worcester at home."