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Sale the latest Premiership club to consider fly-on-the-wall documentary series

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Gallagher Premiership club Sale Sharks could soon feature in their own sports documentary on Amazon Prime with Steve Diamond, their colourful director of rugby, a potential star of the show. 

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The Sharks have told RugbyPass that initial discussions have taken place between Amazon representatives and a team of independent filmmakers about creating a television series which follows the club through the course of one or more seasons. 

A four-minute trailer has even been created to illustrate the Sale story, with Diamond featuring prominently. South African World Cup winner Faf de Klerk and England internationals Tom Curry and Manu Tuilagi would also represent a significant draw for rugby fans, especially if full behind-the-scenes access is granted.

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RugbyPass brings you Inside The Barbarians, the behind the scenes documentary in the run-up to their game last November versus Wales

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RugbyPass brings you Inside The Barbarians, the behind the scenes documentary in the run-up to their game last November versus Wales

The discussions at Sale come just a few months after Northampton confirmed it had engaged sports marketing agency CSM Sport & Entertainment to find broadcasting and production partners for a fly-on-the-wall documentary on life at Franklin’s Gardens.

The revelation that Sale are now also in the race to bring the inside story of an English club rugby season to the screen may prompt others to explore the possibility. However, any hope of filmmakers gaining league-wide access to all twelve Premiership clubs – as Formula 1 managed to negotiate for the Drive to Survive documentary on Netflix – would be premature.

Sale, who have indicated that other production companies are also interested in hearing more about their plans, represent an intriguing proposition, especially if the Sharks can challenge for the Gallagher Premiership title while the cameras are following them.

Despite last weekend’s restart loss at Harlequins, they currently lie third in the 2019/20 Premiership and their recent signing of Tuilagi is a forewarning to opponents that they want to be challenging for the title consistently over the next few seasons.

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Off the pitch, the club also believes they have a compelling story to tell about rugby union in the north-west of England and how communities in which the Sharks are active in are benefitting from the game.

The ultimate challenge, though, would be to create a series which matches the thrills and insights rugby fans have become accustomed to, not only in the behind-the-scenes Lions documentaries but also the high calibre productions from RugbyPass, such as Inside The Barbarians and Tonga: Road to Japan.

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Tom 30 minutes ago
Will Bristol's daredevil 'Bears-ball' deliver the trophy they crave?

Also a Bristol fan and echo your sentiments.


I love watching Bristol but their approach will only get them so far I think. Exeter played like this when they first got promoted to the prem and had intermittent success, it wasn't until they wised up and played a more balanced game that they became a consistently top side.


I really want Bristol to continue playing this brand of rugby and I don't mind them running it from under their posts but I don't think they need to do it every single time. They need to be just a little bit more selective about when and where on the pitch they play. Every game they put themselves under so much needless pressure by turning the ball over under their posts trying to do kamikaze moves when it's not required. By all means run it from your goal line if there is a chance for a counter attack, we all want to see Bristol running in 100m tries from under their posts but I think until they learn when to do it and when to be pragmatic, they are unlikely to win the premiership.


Defense has been a real positive from Bristol, they've shown a lot of improvement there... And I will say that I think this kamikaze strategy they employ is a very good one for a struggling side and could be employed by Newcastle. It's seems to have turned around Gloucester's fortunes. The big advantage is even if you don't have the biggest and best players, what you have is cohesion. This is why Scotland keep battering England. England have better individuals but they look muddled as a team, trying to play a mixed strategy under coaches who lack charisma, the team has no identity. Scotland come out and give it full throttle from 1-15 even if they struggle against the top sides, sides like England and Wales who lack that identity drown under the relentless will and synergy of the Scots. If Newcastle did the same they could really surprise some people, I know the weather is bad up there but it hasn't bothered the Scots. Bristol can learn from Scotland too, Pat is on to something when he says the following but Scotland don't play test matches like headless chickens. They still play with the same level of clarity and ambition Bristol do but they are much better at picking their moments. They needed to go back to this mad game to get their cohesion back after a couple of seasons struggling but I hope they get a bit wiser from matches like Leinster and La Rochelle.


“If there’s clarity on what you’re trying to do as a team you can win anything.”

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