Director of rugby Steve Diamond did not conceal his disappointment following Friday’s 39-15 Derby Weekend loss at home to Sale Sharks, despite his Newcastle Falcons side rallying somewhat in the second half.

Speaking after the Gallagher Premiership clash at Kingston Park, the Falcons boss said: “Credit to Sale, they overpowered us and were the better team on the night.

“George Ford steered them around the park like he always does, and fair play to them, but we need to look at ourselves because we didn’t convert our chances and we were poor in defence.

“That try before half-time was a big blow, and was completely our own fault because three players all went to tackle the same man. It’s not endeavour, because we’ve always got that, but we weren’t thinking clearly and we should have been more competitive.

“We’ve got a simple game plan, and it works when we do it well. Lads were just going off on their own agendas tonight, and it looked like we were playing basketball rather than rugby in the last ten minutes of the first half with some of the passes we were throwing.”

Diamond added: “It was a little bit better in the second half, and I thought Joe Davis did well when he came on in terms of adding some tempo from scrum-half. I didn’t think the senior players really helped him much, which was disappointing, and they’ve been told.

“We’ve not had sharp words in the changing room for a long time, but we had them tonight, because it’s not good enough. We’re better than that – players and coaches combined – and we’ve now got a massive game at Exeter next weekend to show our response.”

Refusing to use this week’s media reports as an excuse for the performance, Diamond said: “The off-field stuff shouldn’t have an effect on the players, and I don’t think we can hide behind that.

“We’ve communicated with the squad and staff all the way through, and this isn’t a Worcester or a Wasps scenario. There are no smoke and mirrors here. We’ve been open about the fact we’re out there looking for investment, and the news last weekend was just saying there’s a potential fallback position being discussed to get us through next season, should it be needed.

“The players and are fully in the picture about what’s happening, and the result tonight can’t be blamed on that. No way.

“It’s not an excuse for the performance tonight, and I really don’t think that’s the reason. We just didn’t implement the game plan that we’d worked on all week, and credit to Sale for coming out worthy winners. The result was right on the night, but we’ll look at ourselves like we always do and fire into Exeter next weekend.”