Diamond takes control at Sale

Sale Sharks chief executive Steve Diamond has revealed that he will take charge of the team for the rest of the season, after Bryan Redpath was removed from his post as director of rugby.

Sale are bottom of the English Premiership table after losing all seven of their league fixtures to date and reports surfaced on Monday that Redpath had been sacked.

Diamond was eager to clarify that Redpath had not been dismissed, but he confirmed that the Scot was no longer in charge of first-team affairs.

Diamond will be assisted by John Mitchell, the former New Zealand coach, who has been working as a consultant at Sale, while Redpath has been offered a position on the coaching staff.

"Effectively, now I will be in charge until the end of the season," Diamond told Britain's Press Association.

"John Mitchell will be consulting during that period, and hopefully Bryan Redpath.

"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."