Diamond rues missed bonus point

Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond admitted to a sense of regret that his side couldn't claim a second losing bonus point in their 50-35 loss to Wasps.

But Diamond still said there were several reasons for optimism that he was able to draw on as the focus now switches to next Friday's first home game of the season against Newcastle.

A tough first 40 minutes saw the Sharks go in 31-14 down at the break but a brave second half fightback saw Sale narrow the deficit to 36-28 late in the game as they threatened to mount a stunning fightback.

However, two late Wasps scores ultimately put paid to any hopes of a Sale completing a remarkable turnaround and also cost the Sharks what would have been an additional losing bonus point to go with their point for scoring more than four tries. Debutants Faf de Klerk and Josh Strauss along with Byron McGuigan, Ben Curry and Denny Solomona all touched down at the Ricoh Arena.

"I have to take the positives out of it – some of our new boys played well. I thought both Faf and Straussy had very good games, and we have a strong bench who also made a big impact," said Diamond.

"AJ had his kicking boots on and there are not many sides that will score five tries at Wasps.

I'd like to have gone away from here with two points which I thought we were capable off in the last 10 minutes but I'll bite my lip and go away with one.

Apart from that, I'm not too despondent. I don't like having to stomach seven tries but we scored five ourselves.

We have put together a new team but I don't think we need to gel – they all understand what they are doing – it's just about having some composure when we are defending and cutting those errors out of our game and I think we left at least two tries out there ourselves. If we are aspiring to be a top side ourselves we need to be putting them away."

Ultimately, the Sale director of rugby felt his side had paid the price for a tough first 40 minutes where Wasps' attack proved a potent threat.

"I think we just couldn't handle Danny Cip and their launch really in that first half – we couldn't stop them," Diamond reflected.

"We'd worked on it all week but they showed that their invention was better than our d (defence) in that first half.

"In the second half we did really well and came back into it."

Diamond was also frustrated by referee JP Doyle's interpretation of the new laws surrounding the ruck.

"I think we probably understand the interpretation of the ruck laws better than the referee as you are not allowed to pick up in the ruck now and go through it. I think when it was 8 points difference in the game at 36-28 and we were in their 22, there was a real crucial decision there as Nathan Hughes picked up the ball and went 20/30 metres and Wasps scored and that killed us really.

We talked about it in the week and we thought JP Doyle would have it where the ball is behind him in the ruck he picks it up and runs through and you are now offside."