Deacon: We must learn from errors

PAUL Deacon admits Sale have to learn how to battle back from adversity as they look to end a three-match losing streak.

The Sharks head into today’s Gallagher Premiership clash at Gloucester still looking for their first win since the shock departure of director of rugby Steve Diamond last month.

Interim boss Deacon questioned the ‘mindset’ of some of his players after last week’s defeat by Wasps.

“One thing we have worked on is reacting to something negative happening on the field and how we get back on track,” said Deacon ahead of today’s game.

“Against Wasps we were just making error after error. We would do something really good and then we would turn the ball over.

“The mindset then has to be ‘what’s next’ and getting our minds back on the job.

That will have a positive impact on our performance.

“I think the players have responded, but we will see on Saturday afternoon.

“We have to see our mistakes as a positive to learn from.

“You learn the most when things aren’t going perfectly.

“We have to stay in the moment in games, produce phases of play back-to-back as that’s how you create pressure on opponents. The performances have not been too far off. It was disappointing against Wasps, especially in the second half, and against Edinburgh we slackened off in the second half.

“It’s not a case of lack of camaraderie. We just have to brush up on a few things, we are not that far off.”

Captain Jono Ross returns for Sale after three weeks out and will be joined in the back-row by England ace Tom Curry. “Gloucester are a tough team, they are going to be hard to beat,” said Deacon.

“We want to pride ou ourselves on being a hard team to be beat.

“They are a good, so solid team who do th the basics really well, so we have to be at the top of our game to get anything out of it.”