Tom Arscott has lifted the lid on his Sale Sharks sacking for leaking team information to a rival side, claiming that it ultimately comes down to 'bragging over a new move'.

The 29-year-old was this week found guilty by the Rugby Football Union of passing on confidential information to brother Luke one day prior to Sale's meeting with Bristol Rugby on New Year's Day.

Bristol battled back from 15-0 down to win 24-23 at the AJ Bell Stadium, and Arscott's contract was terminated by the club shortly afterwards once news about the leak became clear.

Speaking to Sky Sports News about the incident for the first time, the former London Welsh player insists that "no malice" was intended when speaking to his brother.

"It has been a very difficult time for me, my family and my extended family as well," he said. "It has affected a lot of people. It is pretty horrible to be honest because when things are reported you don't get the full story. Sometimes it is difficult when you are reading about yourself because you feel like if you could put things into context maybe people would view things differently. I just went down to meet him and have a bit of a catch up.

"Over the holiday period we don't get to see each other much as you can imagine. Obviously with the rugby side of it, I told Luke that we had a new move that I thought we would score off which is where all the issues have come from. It was a bit of bragging from my point of view saying 'we are going to score' and just a bit of banter with my brother - a sibling rivalry sort of thing.

"Obviously I have said something that I shouldn't say and I hold my hands up to that but at the time I didn't realise I was saying anything that I shouldn't have been saying. When I was speaking to Luke and joking about this move we were going to score off there was no intent for that to go any further or for it to be detrimental to Sale in any way.

"I think there have been reports of me trying to orchestrate to get myself back into the team which is just not the case. I had played for eight weeks in a row. This was the first game I hadn't been involved in. You are a professional player and you want to be involved in every game but there was no malice in anything I was saying to Luke."

Arscott, given a written warning by the RFU and warned about his future conduct, scored 20 tries in 72 appearances for the Sharks.