The Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond has insisted that his club have done nothing wrong over the signing of the rugby league player Denny Solomona, after the Castleford Tigers winger was officially revealed as a Sharks player on a three-year deal on Tuesday.
The Samoan, who was Super League’s top try-scorer last season after crossing for a record-breaking 42 tries informed Castleford he had retired from rugby league in order to facilitate a cross-code move to Sale against the Tigers’ wishes. Castleford have indicated they are ready to take the matter to the high court for a case that could have major ramifications for the league code of the game
Castleford had rejected bids from three clubs – including Sale – for the wing before he failed to return for pre-season training last month, and despite the Tigers never officially accepting a bid for the 23-year-old, Diamond has stressed that as far as he is concerned, Sale are guilty of nothing.
“I don’t think we’ve done anything wrong at all to be honest,” he said. “Players have agents and they put the players up on the marketplace. Let’s get it straight: there were other clubs in for Denny and there were at least two rugby union clubs I know of that were in the market to sign him.
“I think the situation has been blown out of proportion. These things happen in sport almost every week where players move around and yes, we’re at a point now where we’re at an impasse - but I’m sure that’ll be ironed out before too long. It’s in the hands of the owners of the clubs, it’s nothing to do with me really.”
Castleford and their legal team - with the support of the Rugby Football League - are now expected to issue a statement in response to the completion of the transfer, but Diamond cooled talk that transfers like these - with potential legal implications - could now become commonplace between the two sports.
.@DennySolomona signs for Sale Sharks! Read more here: https://t.co/XaNLnlneuN #JoinTheHunt pic.twitter.com/Zt3zHkVyKL
— Sale Sharks (@SaleSharksRugby) December 13, 2016
He said: “I don’t think it could. There’s very few people who can switch between the sports anyway. If I had a player here who said they wanted to leave Sale, I’d let him go. There’s no real difference here: I think that’s what has happened. We’ve just got to get on with it - we’ve nothing to hide.”
Solomona has been training with Sale before Tuesday’s announcement, and Diamond admitted that he will likely make his debut in Sunday’s Champions Cup clash against Saracens. “There’s no point trying to play him in A team games,” Diamond said. “I think he’ll be involved on Sunday - he’s been training with us for about a week or so now.”
