Sale’s own players revealed to the head coach, Steve Diamond, that the club’s wing Tom Arscott allegedly leaked information to Bristol before their 24-23 Premiership defeat on New Year’s Day, with Diamond saying: “I have never come across anything like this before.”
Arscott was suspended by the club on 4 January and Diamond said he will face an internal investigation and a Rugby Football Union inquiry following the complaint made by Sale on Monday night.
Diamond said he had not been aware of the issue until his own squad reported it to him. “The only bit of information I’ll give is that the squad came to me with the problem – I knew nothing about it but I reacted to my senior players coming to me,” he said. “I don’t think it’s altered our performances; we’re a good set of lads and the squad asked me what we should do and we had to go down this route.
“He’s been suspended, and when we get the date for the hearing we’ll have a disciplinary with the lad. I’ve never come across anything like this before; if you do your own analysis you don’t need the information really, and in the same breath there’s an element of trust and loyalty you need to have.
“Team information is sacrosanct to what happens within the club and I think words to that effect are within a contract: passing on information is forbidden.”
Arscott’s brother, Luke, is a Bristol player and was on the bench at the AJ Bell Stadium, but Diamond stressed that they do not consider the Bristol player to be part of any incident. “There’s no suggestion from us that’s the case,” the head coach said.
Diamond also stated he is confident that the club will have no case to answer regarding a possible breach of concussion management protocol relating to the back-row TJ Ioane.
Ioane appeared to be concussed during the 30th minute of Sale’s 29-26 Premiership defeat at Harlequins on 7 January, but remained on the pitch and completed the match.
That led to the RFU confirming a panel would convene to assess the incident, but Diamond is confident Sale can prove they were correct in keeping Ioane on the field. He said: “They’ve got an independent body with a doctor and two rugby people and we’ve got to answer the questions they ask which we’re confident of doing, as we know our players better than anyone.
“We’d be well up there with HIA [head injury assessment] occurrences and looking after people. We’re confident all our ducks are in a row. We’re putting our information together; I don’t think it’s too much to worry about to be honest.” Diamond also said the club have not held discussions with the Bath fly-half, George Ford, over a move to Sale next season – and admitted it looks like the England international could now remain at the Recreation Ground.
Sale have been linked with Ford since it was reported the fly-half activated a clause in his contract which could allow him to end his deal a year early.
“We’ve been trying to get hold of the agent but they’re difficult to get hold of,” he said. “We can’t talk to him anyway because he’s not out of contract.” When asked if he felt Ford may stay with Bath, Diamond replied: “It looks like it.”
