Für unsere Gäste » foster positive energy for Sock. As he said

Denny Solomona was offered to Sale and two other rugby union clubs, according to director of rugby Steve Diamond, who says his Premiership club have done nothing wrong in the signing of the record-breaking Super League winger.The Sharks confirmed the cross-code capture Tuesday morning after weeks of speculation amid a likely legal battle after the 23-year-old Auckland-born player failed to turn up for the start of preseason training with Castleford.The Tigers say they rejected three offers during the season for the former London Broncos winger, who had two years left on his contract, and are set to take the matter to the High Court.Diamond, speaking at a press conference at Sales training ground at Carrington, dismissed talk of under-hand dealings and says he is confident an agreement will be thrashed out between the clubs.Weve never wanted to go down the route of getting into any legal battles, Diamond said. We just wanted the deal done and Im sure the powers that be are getting on with that as we speak.I dont think weve done anything wrong at all to be perfectly honest. Players have agents and agents put players up on the market place. There were two other rugby union clubs that I know of who were in the market to sign Denny Solomona.Weve just got to bite our lip and get on with it and be candid. Weve got nothing to hide.Diamond says Solomona, who shot to prominence after scoring 42 tries for Castleford in 2016 but on Tuesday signed a three-year deal with Sale, will make his debut for the Sharks in Sundays Champions Cup match against holders Saracens at the AJ Bell Stadium after training with them for just over a week.The player, who is seen by Diamond as an outside centre or winger in the 15-man code, has also been registered to play in the Premiership and has received the necessary clearance from the rugby union authorities.The Sale boss says the player became available in the late summer after announcing his intention to play rugby union and apparently resigning from rugby league.I do understand Castlefords perspective, Diamond said. Hes one of their star players.What has happened to Cas has happened to me, I had three players leave me in the summer, thats the way it is.Dennys attention was brought to me not by an agent but by fellow players, fellow Samoan lads who play here that he is friendly with.His desire was to get playing rugby union. He said he wanted to play the game he grew up with. If it wasnt a club in England, he was going to go back to Auckland in the super franchises where he came from.In all honesty, the situation has been blown out of proportion. These things happen in sport every week where players move around. Its behaving professional and getting it done.I think were at the point now where were at a bit of an impasse and Im sure before too long that will be ironed out.There are two sides to all stories. I can say from day one that Sale have acted in the best interests of Sale and have done everything legitimately by the book. I think that will come out in the wash.Diamond says he does not believe the Solomona case will set a precedent and insists he would not stand in the way of any player wishing to leave Sale. That includes former Wigan and England rugby league winger Josh Charnley, who switched codes at the end of the 2016 Super League season.If I have a player here who says to me I want to play for another club, then Id let him go, Diamond added.There are very few that make the transition from one to the other. Denny has played rugby union up to being 19 so hes got the fundamentals.I threw Josh in and hes pretty much our most consistent player at the minute. Denny needs some game time to get that. Theres no point trying to play him in A team games and you can only do so much at training so exposure is what he needs.Castleford have appointed leading London barrister Nick Randall QC - whose other clients include England captain Wayne Rooney - and Leeds-based sports lawyer Richard Cramer to fight their case and have the backing of the Rugby Football League, whose chief executive Nigel Wood has expressed his concern to both the RFU and Premier Rugby.The RFL is also investigating Solomonas agent Andy Clarke. Mark Clayton Jersey . - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. Minkah Fitzpatrick Jersey . Once again, DeLaet finished tied for second at a PGA Tour stop on the weekend, this time at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The pride of Weyburn, Sask. http://www.dolphinsrookiestore.com/Dolphins-Larry-Csonka-Jersey/ . Q: Team Canada announces their Olympic roster three weeks from today. Who is general manager Steve Yzerman watching? LeBrun: Over the last 48 hours, hes taken in the home-and-home between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche with Jamie Benn and Matt Duchene being the obvious targets. Christian Wilkins Youth Jersey . Note: The Calgary Flames announced Tuesday that Sean Monahan would not be made available to Canadas World Junior team. Larry Csonka Jersey . Just not the game. Kyle Palmieri scored two straight goals in the third period to rally the Anaheim Ducks past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday night. Jack Sock is starting to make a habit of winning big matches, a newfound talent that may be ushering in a new era in American tennis.Sock, 24 years old and already the highest-ranking player from the U.S. at No. 24, upset No. 12 seed Richard Gasquet on Thursday at the ATP Paris Masters 1000 in a three-setter just shy of three hours. Socks explosive forehand, improved mobility and increasingly well-rounded game have enabled him to log some resounding wins since his early loss in the Olympic games in Rio.Since then, Sock has beaten Marin Cilic at the US Open (where the former champion was the No. 7 seed), Shanghai No. 5 seed and Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic and German wunderkind Alexander Zverev. On Wednesday in Paris, he took out Dominic Thiem handily before his hard-fought win against Gasquet.For years now, Sock has been touted as the successor to Andy Roddick. Hes been hailed by some as the player who might accomplish the feat that has eluded John Isner, long the top-ranked U.S. player in the post-Roddick era: a Grand Slam triumph that might kick-start the American mens game.Like Roddick, the last U.S. Grand Slam champion, Sock is a native Nebraskan. His game also is anchored in an atomic forehand abetted by a powerful serve. Theres a physicality about Socks game that is reminiscent of Roddick at his most persuasive. At 6-foot-3, Sock is an inch taller, if not quite as broad-shouldered.Against Thiem, an Austrian 23-year-old who is every bit as much a muscular worker, Sock dominated in true Roddick-style, winning 91 percent of his first-serve points, backing up those fireballs with forehand blasts mixed with occasional off-speed backhands and even drop shots. Thiem never saw a break point.However, Socks similarity to Roddick also carried a price tag. It quickly morphed into pressure. It didnt help that Socks game was raw and his temperament unschooled. Thus Socks development was relatively slow. He also had to learn to live with the pressure. At times before this summer, it was intense.People love to do comparisons [to Roddick], Sock told USA Today in August. But you just have to brush it off and keep focusing on what youre doing, on trying to get better. No matter how well you do, theres always people who are going to hate or have better expectations.Sock had trouble distancing himself from other promising newcomers, including Ryan Harrison and Donald Young. They would all flare, then struggle. The only reliable American since 22010 has been that other late bloomer, Isner.dddddddddddd He hit a career high of No. 9 in 2012 and has been a top-20 player -- and the leading U.S. male -- for most of his career. But hes 31 years old now and ranked four places below Sock.Isner is 6-foot-10 and still dangerous, and he will remain so as long as that serve continues to lock and load. But he lives and dies by it. Isners size and long limbs impair his mobility. His game is poorly suited to the way tennis is played today, whereas Socks is right in tune with his times during what might be an era of transition on the ATP Tour.In October, Sock was a quarterfinalist at the Shanghai Masters 1000 and a finalist in Stockholm for the second year in a row. Hes 14-5 since the start of the US Open. Sock has been on fire in doubles as well. He partnered with Steve Johnson to earn the bronze medal at the Olympics in Rio and won the mixed-doubles gold medal with Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Since the US Open, Sock has made the final in all three doubles events hes played, winning in Shanghai and the Swiss Indoors.Those triumphs brought his record in doubles finals to 8-8 (including two Grand Slam titles), a mark Sock must wish he could duplicate in singles. Hes just 1-4 in tournament finals, with his lone win coming on the red clay of Houston in 2015. Thiem, by comparison, has four tournament wins -- and thats just this year.All those doubles wins, though, foster positive energy for Sock. As he said after he won the Wimbledon doubles title with Vasek Pospisil in 2014, Any match you win, especially in Grand Slams, playing in the second week can only help your confidence in all aspects of tennis.Doubles, as John McEnroe and Martina Navratilova once shouted from the rooftops, isnt merely a confidence-booster. It also helps hone your game. It can be especially useful for todays under-25 pros, who were trained with a heavy emphasis on groundstrokes, at the expense of the net game. In Stockholm, one key to Socks win over Zverev was his creative use of slice and sharp angles, stuff straight out of the doubles playbook.But Sock has redoubled his focus on singles this year. With some interesting fellow countrymen such as?Taylor Fritz,?Frances Tiafoe?and Jared Donaldson coming on fast, theres never been a better time for Sock to step into those big shoes left by Roddick. ' ' '