Sale in confident mood as they put Covid-19 saga to bed ahead of another Saints clash

Chris Boyd's men head to the AJ Bell Stadium hoping to start the new Gallagher Premiership season in style.

Saints are desperate to put a hugely disappointing end to last season behind them, having lost 13 of 14 their matches before being forced to forfeit their final-day fixture at Gloucester.

And though Diamond is confident Sale, who won 34-14 at Franklin's Gardens in what turned out to be the last game of last season, can get the job done again, he insists his players will be told to take nothing for granted.

“I'm confident we are in a good position fitness-wise and that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet," Diamond said.

"We certainly won’t have the mentality that all we have to do is turn up at home and win as that doesn’t happen any more, at any ground.

"We came unstuck three times after the initial lockdown, probably thinking we were a little bit better than we were, if I’m honest.

"We just need to get the basics right.

"I think if our defence is up there like it was last season, and if we work on the areas we have targeted, which are our goal-kicking, our scrum and our discipline, I think it will take a good team to beat us, home or away.

And he added: “We will be taking every game as it comes, but we have to be ambitious and be thinking we are a top-four side with the squad we have and the coaching setup we have in place.

"Once you’re in that top four, it’s a different competition all together.

"I think all of our players should be proud of their performance last season and we are hoping to emulate the same combative displays we became accustomed to last year.

"A big thing for us is the start, we know we’re at home first up, we’ve trained well over the past two weeks but we are under no illusions that every match will be a tough encounter this season - and that starts on Friday night against Saints.”

Saints' clash with Sale back in September came at a cost to the black, green and gold as they were forced to withdraw from their final-day fixture at Gloucester.

Sale initially registered 16 Covid cases after that game and there were 11 more to come, meaning the Sharks had to forfeit their game against Worcester Warriors, missing out on a top-four place in the process.

Saints could not play at Gloucester as several of their players were forced to self-isolate after coming into close contact with Sale.

But Diamond says his club have been cleared of any wrongdoing and is keen to move on from the whole saga.

"I'm delighted with the decision that we've been exonerated," said Diamond.

"There was a natural spike in the region and put that together with we were given a false negative, they would have been contributory factors to the outbreak.

"What happened to us could have happened to anybody. It happened to Wasps to a lesser extent and it's recently happened to Leicester.

"We were the first and we were victims because we had a chance to go into the top four."

Sale had been accused by some of partying after their Premiership Rugby Cup final win against Harlequins, which was played little more than a week before the game at Saints.

But Diamond, who picked out comments made by Bristol boss Pat Lam, Worcester director of rugby Alan Solomons and former England wing Ugo Monye, labelled those accusations 'completely inaccurate and untrue'.

And he said: "(They) all jumped in on these false allegations that we were partying in the inner city and the student areas of Manchester which was a real poor thing to say with no evidence and obviously it was factually incorrect."

With Sale having recovered from their Covid-19 outbreak, Diamond has plenty of options at his disposal this week, though Manu Tuilagi, Lood de Jager, Josh Beaumont and Byron McGuigan will be missing due to injury, while Tom Curry is with England.

“We're in fine fettle at the moment, if I’m honest," Diamond said.

"We have two long-term injuries in Lood and Manu, but apart from that we're in pretty good condition.

"We have Josh Beaumont and Byron McGuigan with niggles from last season, but we are expecting them to be involved around Christmas time.

"Unfortunately, I think we will be looking at March or April time before we see Lood back in action, and I think Manu will be back shortly after that, in time for the business end of the season.”