‘Sale Sharks eyeing home semi-final’ – Steve Diamond

David Skippers

Sale Sharks boss Steve Diamond has revealed that his team have revised their ambitions following Friday’s dominant 39-0 win over London Irish.

The Salford-based outfit have won six of their past eight games in the league and now sit at the top of the Premiership table above Exeter on points difference ahead of the Chiefs’ clash with Bath on Saturday.

Diamond had initially set his side the target of finishing in the top four but now has his sights set on a home semi-final.

“I don’t know about top, but all we need to do is finish in the top two,” said Sale’s director of rugby. “It was about top four, but we’ve got to move our goal a little bit higher.

“If you get in the play-offs, it’s difficult to win in this competition away from home, as everybody knows. If you’re going to finish in the top four, why not try and finish in the top two?

“We’ve got Harlequins away after the (Premiership Rugby Cup) final and Exeter at home. I think if we can get four or five points out of them two games we will be in a good position moving forward.”

The Sharks have gone on an excellent run in the Premiership but have done so without some key players.

Faf de Klerk and new signing Lood de Jager both returned from injury to make a significant impact against Irish, while the likes of Mark Wilson, Tom Curry, Akker van der Merwe and Rohan Janse van Rensburg are still to come back.

There was plenty of intrigue over debutant Springbok powerhouse De Jager on Friday, and Diamond believes his presence will take the pressure off experienced lock Bryn Evans at the line-out.

“He’s (Evans) our line-out guru and him and Lood have been working behind the scenes for three or four months on it, albeit it probably wasn’t the best area of our game tonight,” he added.

“We lost half a dozen line-outs, so maybe I’ve not made training old school enough over the last two weeks. We might have to turn that up a bit this week!”

Sale were relentless in Salford and never really allowed Irish to get into the game. The Exiles remain in eighth place and their director of rugby Declan Kidney believes it was a steep learning curve for his players.

“We have a lot of younger lads who need to learn to play these types of games,” Kidney said. “Once we learn, it will put us in a better position.

“Everybody will look at the last 10 or 15 minutes when the scoreline got well away from us, but I’m taking a closer look at the first 50 because, if you get that right, that last 20 becomes a totally different game.

“Sale play a good game of rugby and you have to learn to play the different styles. Sale are able to play that way, that’s why they’re going so well, and we must learn to play against sides that play that type of game. It’s doable but you have to be on the money.”

London Irish