Still Time For Yarde To Turn His Image Around At Sale

Marland Yarde has got to play at a club where he fits in and feels he can go about making the most of his ability in the right way, and, hopefully, his move to Sale Sharks will do that for him. There seems to have been some kind of communications breakdown between him and Harlequins this season, with the result that he has not lived up to the demands of the culture at The Stoop.

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Yarde has missed a few training sessions, and the reasons that he gave could not have been satisfactory enough for the bosses at Quins. Reading from the quotes from Chris Robshaw at England’s training camp in Portugal, when a senior Harlequins player of his stature says it’s time for Marland to move on, then it probably isn’t best for him, or the club, to stay together.

I was sometimes difficult to work with during my rugby career, mainly because I always had a lot of questions. It was the same at school, where the questions were seen as disruptive, even though I had a very good attendance record and only ever had one detention.

However, although I still had plenty of questions when I was at Bath, I was never late for a training session, and I also had all the basic manners and respect for others in place.

I had a superb work ethic, part of which was because I never wanted to let anyone down, and I worked hard throughout my career to maintain that. So, my view is that if you cannot turn up on time then, in the end, it just won’t happen for you.

Sale boss Steve Diamond comes from the amateur era, when he was a good tough player at the club, and he’s been out and about in the game. At one stage he coached Russia, and he’s got the reputation of a character who knows how to deal with people.