Ashton exit caused by ‘disagreement over how to play’, claim Sale

Steve Diamond, the Sale director of rugby, says his club will not be “derailed” as they deal with the aftermath of Chris Ashton’s departure. The Premiership’s secondplaced side sprung a shock by announcing the England winger had been released from his contract immediately.

Diamond said the decision had been made because of a “disagreement over how we play the game”, rather than financial reasons, after the 32-year-old was linked with a move to Harlequins.

“Good luck to him, he is a good player,” he said. “There’s no situation. Just a disagreement on how we want to play. He wants to do it one way, I want to do it another. It’s not done for money reasons. We are not going to be derailed. We have got a model that works and people have to buy into it.”

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the high-tackle frameworks introduced by World Rugby before the World Cup produced a decrease in the average number of concussions at the tournament compared to across the elite game in 2018. The number of tackle-related concussion incidents per 1,000 player hours dropped by 37 per cent at the World Cup compared to the previous year while, overall, concussion incidents dropped by 28 per cent.

Dr Eanna Falvey, World Rugby’s chief medical officer, told The Daily Telegraph: “In 2011, at that Rugby World Cup, we had a rate where 55 per cent of players who had a concussion stayed on the pitch. Now that figure is less than eight per cent, which means we have a much greater awareness of what concussion is and how to diagnose it.”