Sale Sharks boss Steve Diamond believes the rugby union side were ‘right’ to sign former Castleford winger Denny Solomona after his high-profile code switch was finally settled last week.
The Tigers said they received a settlement of over £200,000 after Solomona walked away from his deal with the Super League leaders just weeks after becoming the competition’s record try-scorer for a single season.
And Diamond told the BBC that the Sharks were justified in their initial offer of £150,000, rising to £200,000, before they lowered that to just £50,000, leading Castleford to launch legal proceedings.
“The fact of the matter is that prematurely, in a hail of publicity, Castleford went legal,” Diamond said.
“The settlement proves, that in this case, the facts were we were right from day one in offering the right amount of money which was more than three other clubs were offering.
“The law hasn’t been settled in this case whatsoever and if that is what rugby league and Castleford are attempting to do then they’ve failed in that.”
“There has been no precedent set here. From day one it was never a case of rugby union against rugby league, it was a case of an unhappy player who wanted to play rugby union and we went through the proper channels from day one.”
Diamond also insisted that the rugby union side have done nothing wrong throughout the whole process.
He said: “We’ve done absolutely nothing wrong. Our reputation is absolutely intact and enhanced by the fact that Denny has joined us, done the job he has been asked to do and he’s been picked for England.
“Why do you think settlement was made last week at pretty much the figure we offered 10 or 11 months ago? Everybody has moved away, taken the emotion out of it, common sense has prevailed and seen that’s a good deal.”
