John Mitchell, the Director of Rugby of the Aviva Premiership Rugby Union club the Sale Sharks has insisted that his side just wasn’t good enough and deserved their nine try loss to the French powerhouses Toulon in their Heineken Cup fixture over the weekend.
Although they conceded just three points to the overpowering Toulon side in the first thirty minutes of the game, The Sharks went into the break on the back foot after Toulon had scored through Frederik Michalak and Jean-Charles Orioli.
But even that was respectable score considering the magnanimity of the opposition that Sale were having to contend with. However, the floodgates were opened in the second half as the English club shipped in a whopping seven tries, including two from England international siblings Delon and Steffan Armitage to go down 62-0 in the end. The former coach of the All Blacks Mitchell was visibly dejected at the end of the match and when the media caught up with him, he added that the Sale Sharks deserved to go down to their 12th loss in 15 games on the back of such a performance.
The Kiwi stated that the team is extremely disappointed with the result and so are all the individuals with their own performances. He added that he had been looking at this particular group of players ahead of the Christmas period and insisted that after that performance; he certainly knows an awful lot more about certain players. He mentioned that some of the real characters of the players were revealed but he added that he doesn’t have much choice in certain areas.
Toulon rested several of their star players after their win in the first three games and that is something that is haunting the former Sale Sharks player Mitchell as he oversaw the capitulation of his side.