Sale Sharks 14-28 Northampton Saints
Diamond takes aim at Sale's front-row
ESPN Staff
April 4, 2014
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Northampton celebrate Sam Dickinson's try © Getty Images
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Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond lashed out at his front-row in the wake of their Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Northampton on Thursday evening.

Bath-bound England international prop Henry Thomas was outplayed by opposition loose-head Ethan Waller, while Ireland representative Tony Buckley, who came on for Thomas, failed to get the Sharks' scrum moving forward.

The midlands outfit also scored three tries from driving mauls as the Sharks failed to halt the power of the Saints' forward eight in their 28-14 defeat, much to the frustration of Diamond.

"A few people in our set-up have shown their true colours tonight, I don't think that we had a great performance by anybody," he said. "Our scrum didn't hold up. We've got international props who are not playing to the standard that they've been selected for internationally, so we've got to have a good look at our selection.

"We were out-enthused in the first half. At half-time we couldn't play any worse than we did in the first so it looks as if we had a good second half, but in reality we were disappointing. There will be some harsh words. We can put up with dropping the ball and giving penalties away, but when we're out-enthused that's one thing that hasn't happened this year."

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