Champions Cup: Steve Diamond expects Clermont to beat Saracens
Saturday 17 January 2015 22:39, UK
Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond believes Clermont Auvergne will beat Saracens in next weekend’s winner-takes-all Pool 1 showdown.
Clermont condemned the Sharks to their fifth straight defeat in this season’s European Champions Cup, winning 22-13 at the AJ Bell Stadium.
That sets up a mouth-watering match with Saracens next Sunday in France - whoever wins will reach the quarter-finals.
"For Saracens to go to Clermont and win would be a huge achievement for an English team. I would say the odds are stacked against them," said Diamond, whose team have remained highly competitive in the pool games, despite failing to muster a victory.
"We have lost at home to three sides - Saracens in the last minute, Munster in the last minute and we were beaten in the last 10 minutes today,” he said.
"We've come a long way as a side in this competition but we've got a lot to do and a lot to work on.
"It's good that we are playing against these kind of sides who are, week in and week out, probably better than us and we will learn from it.
"We are obviously in the top six of the Premiership and the goal for us is to qualify for this top European competition again.
"If you qualify, you want a group which has sides like Clermont, Munster and Saracens. Unlike today, the last two home games have had big crowds and it's a joy to play in it.
"We could have won this game and we just need to believe in ourselves a bit more. I'm not disappointed because we will beat the mid-table sides in the Premiership if we perform like that week in and week out."
Clermont's former Leicester hooker Benjamin Kayser paid tribute to Sale's fighting spirit.
He said: "It's a very English mentality to never give up, even though they didn't stand a chance of qualifying.
"That's one thing I admire about the English sides - they never give up and they have so much respect for the European Cup.
"They always give everything and the first half was very tough with the conditions - it was cold and wet, which wasn't ideal.
"But we really got stuck in, we didn't panic and leaders such as Morgan Parra and Camille Lopez really had the right words to keep our composure, play simple rugby and we did that. It such an important win for us."
