{"id":345889,"date":"2025-12-13T18:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/345889\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T18:37:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:37:08","slug":"sale-sharks-have-parted-ways-with-marco-bortolami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/345889\/","title":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks have parted ways with Marco Bortolami"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Sale <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sharks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sharks<\/a> have parted ways with head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/marco-bortolami\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Bortolami<\/a> \u2013 RugbyPass understands.<\/p>\n<p>It appears that Sale\u2019s dramatic 35-14 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/european-champions-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Investec Champions Cup<\/a> away victory over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/clermont\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Clermont<\/a> carried an extra layer of intrigue, with the on-field response coming against a backdrop of quiet upheaval behind the scenes.<\/p>\n<p>The decision, which happened on Friday, brings a sudden end to the Italian\u2019s brief spell at the club.<\/p>\n<p>The ex-<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/italy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italy<\/a> lock only signed with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/sale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sale<\/a> last June. He arrived from URC side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/benetton\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Benetton<\/a> Treviso earlier in the year, leaving that side his role with the Italian club prior to the end of their season.<\/p>\n<p>Working under DoR\u00a0 Alex Sanderson, Sale\u2019s Gallagher PREM form has failed to impress this term. The Greater Manchester-based side is currently sitting seventh on the table.<\/p>\n<p>The exact reasons for the split are not yet clear, although it is understood that backroom staff chemistry was relatively strained.<\/p>\n<p>His departure has brought the curtain down on a short-lived appointment and now opens the door for a re-shuffling of Sale\u2019s coaching ticket.<\/p>\n<p>Bortolami did bring significant experience to Sale, both as a former international and as a coach.<\/p>\n<p>The 45-year-old won more than 100 caps for Italy during a distinguished playing career and remains his country\u2019s youngest ever captain, having been handed the role at just 22.<\/p>\n<p>At club level, Bortolami began his professional career with Padova before moving to Narbonne in France. He joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/gloucester\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gloucester<\/a> in 2006, spending four seasons at Kingsholm, before returning to Italy in 2010 with Aironi and later finishing his playing career at Zebre.<\/p>\n<p>The Italian\u2019s departure didn\u2019t stop the Sharks from bagging an impressive win over Clermont at Stade Marcel-Michelin. They built a 20-7 half-time lead through tries from Tom O\u2019Flaherty, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/marius-louw\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marius Louw<\/a> and Arron Reed. Clermont threatened after Lucas Zamoa\u2019s score, but Sale pulled clear with late tries from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/joe-bedlow\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Bedlow<\/a> and Alex Wills. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sale Sharks have parted ways with head coach Marco Bortolami \u2013 RugbyPass understands. It appears that Sale\u2019s dramatic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-345889","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}