English Sharks have national ambition

Sale Chief Executive Steve Diamond said that the English players at the club have national ambitions after the Premiership Round 22 loss to Harlequins.

Diamond named an all-English 23-man squad for the visit of the table-toppers safe in the knowledge that it would have taken a miracle elsewhere to deny the Sharks Heineken Cup rugby next season.

He said that this reflected the north-west's position as a rugby hotbed full of players with national ambitions.

"England are hosting the World Cup in 2015. Up here, we're proud of players who want to play for England and we've got a lot of ambition," he said. "Today was a wonderful chance for our lads who have played quite a lot of games this year, but been in the shadows as well, to play in the first team in front of a full house against a top side."

Harlequins' director of rugby Conor O'Shea admitted they were nervous as they claimed top spot position in the Aviva Premiership table.

Despite racing into a 21-3 lead, Sale hit back with a try from Will Addison and created several opportunities, but they held on. And O'Shea praised his side's consistency over the season.

"To be at the top of the leader board on September 17 and to still be top on May 5 takes a heck of a lot of work from a lot of people at the club," he said. "We've achieved nothing, but it's a nice little thing to have done for everyone involved at the club and we're looking forward to next week against Northampton (in the play-offs).

"You could see there was a little bit of tension there. We kept them at arms length once we got into a 21-3 lead. We almost stopped playing rather than ramming home the opportunities we had."