Chris Ashton’s former boss at Sale, Steve Diamond, said the ex-England player left after a “difference of opinion”. The winger has now had his say.
He spent 18 months at Sale after joining them from Toulon, where he broke the Top 14 try-scoring record.
The 32-year-old said he had “disagreed” with Diamond in a meeting but was “completely unaware of any problem.”
“I didn’t feel as though we had the relationship that I’d hope for. We did bang heads on a few things but it’s only because I wanted the club to get better and win, it was never any other way than that.”
However, what followed that was another meeting with the Sharks boss.
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“After I got home from my meeting [with Steve Diamond] my mum and missus said ‘what’s wrong with you’.” Ashton told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast.
“I must’ve been as white as some kitchen cupboards.
“They said ‘what’s up’ – ‘I haven’t got a job, I don’t think I’ve got a job’ – it was that fast.”
The rugby stars fans simply can’t stand
1. Dylan Hartley (England)
Swearing at referee’s, involving himself in scraps and eye gouging accusations have all led to the 99-cap England international becoming one of the most vilified rugby players of the modern era.
2. Yoann Huget (France)
Huget’s recent pathetic theatrics have turned launched him into rugby’s most hated list of
– Stamping on players heads
– Gouging another player
-Faking injuries
– Generally being an absolute shithouse
3. Bakkies Botha
The Springbok lock certainly totted up the bans. Eight weeks for “attacking the face” of Aussie hooker Brendan Cannon in 2003; three weeks for striking another Wallaby, Phil Waugh, in 2009; two matches for an illegal clear out on Adam Jones in the second Lions Test in the same year; four weeks for a similar offence on Gio Aplon in 2010; and nine weeks for a headbutt on Jimmy Cowan in 2010.
4. Chris Ashton
It seems even when Ashton is keeping quiet he upsets fans as his audacious swan dives have earned him plenty of detractors.
