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Beaumont in hospital following Sale Sharks win over Wasps
By Ian Cameron
Sale Sharks director of rugby Steve Diamond revealed that lock Josh Beaumont had gone to hospital following a nasty-looking knee injury sustained in the win over Wasps.
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The talented second-row landed awkwardly at a lineout during the Sharks’ 28-18 victory at the AJ Bell Stadium and was taken off on a stretcher.
Diamond stated that it was “serious” but was unable to elaborate further with the 26-year-old in the care of hospital staff.
That incident took the gloss off a win which moved Sale up to second in the Gallagher Premiership.
The Du Preez brothers starred, with fly-half Rob kicking 17 points and Daniel scoring their only try, but Sale’s boss was still left frustrated.
Although Rob du Preez was accurate off the tee, Diamond felt that they were not truly rewarded for their attacking game.
“I was disappointed with the penalty count,” he said.
“It was 19 or 20 against (Wasps), including an innocuous red card (for Paolo Odogwu) at the end, but he (referee Tom Foley) could have tidied up the breakdown by issuing his yellows early doors.
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“It wasn’t a flowing game, it probably wasn’t great to watch. I don’t really watch it as a supporter, I watch it for work, and I’m coming away disappointed, so no doubt some of the fans are. The result’s great but the performance wasn’t fantastic.”
Wasps’ ill-discipline was also a frustration for visiting director of rugby Dai Young, who thought that it was a significant factor in their loss to the Sharks.
“Defensively, we made some positive strides there, but we gave some silly penalties away when we didn’t really need to give silly penalties away,” Young said.
“We’ve got to look at ourselves. I’m not going to blame the ref, I don’t believe any of them were wrong calls – obviously, there were 50/50s on occasion – but in fairness we’ve got to look at ourselves.
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“We certainly creaked in the second half. We’ve talked about doubling up penalties and in the second half we were marched down the field on the back of that, which gave them easy yards and easy points.
“I was pleased with the commitment, pleased with the physicality but that’s a given. It’s a tight league and you’ve got to make sure you come away from every game with something. We threw at least a losing bonus point away.”
