Aviva Premiership
Redpath named Sale head coach
ESPN Staff
October 31, 2012
Sale Sharks' Bryan Redpath barks some orders, Sale Sharks v Saracens, Aviva Premiership, Salford City Stadium, England, September 8, 2012
Former Sharks director of rugby Bryan Redpath has accepted a role as the Premiership side's head coach © Getty Images
Enlarge

Sale Sharks have named Bryan Redpath as their head coach just a day after they confirmed he had been removed from his position as director of rugby.

Redpath's future at the club was in doubt when he was relieved of his post on Monday by following a disastrous start to the Premiership season that has seen the Sharks suffer seven straight defeats and notch just two bonus points. Chief executive Steve Diamond assumed responsibility for the first team but the club denied Redpath had been dismissed.

Initial reports suggested the Scot had been offered the role of backs coach but it has now been confirmed he has accepted the role of head coach with the club set to honour the four-year contract he signed when he made a high-profile switch from Premiership rivals Gloucester.

Diamond will remain in charge of the side for the remainder of the season but will work alongside Redpath, club owner Brian Kennedy, ex-Sale boss and former New Zealand coach John Mitchell and businessman and co-owner Ian Blackhurst on a newly-formed rugby strategy management board that "will meet regularly to devise and review the long term rugby strategy."

In a statement, Kennedy stressed the club's desire to stop the rot. "The priority of all the management within Sale Sharks is to get back to winning ways and secure our position in the Premiership," he said. "We believe we have the playing and coaching talent and structure to achieve this. Beyond this we must plan medium and long term to compete at the top of the game and this will be the remit of the strategy board."

Diamond explained the decision to restructure the coaching team yesterday, saying: "The situation is that after a lot of poor results we have asked Bryan just to take a little bit of time out, a couple of days off to reconsider what we are doing and how we restructure our rugby department.

"We want him to be involved moving forward. He is contracted for a long time after making a big move from Gloucester and we want him to be involved. We just need to get the balance of that right, and it clearly isn't right (judging) by our results, so we just want to change it around a little bit to make sure we get the most out of our resources in the coaching - myself, Bryan and John Mitchell."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

Live Sports

Communication error please reload the page.