Ex-Sale star whose career was ruined by woman's lies rebuilds life as pilot

An ex-Sale Sharks star whose life was ‘ruined’ by a woman who made false allegations against him has spoken of his complete career turn.

Marland Yarde, who played rugby union for England and Sale Sharks, was the victim of a vicious campaign by Sandra Ntonya that left his career in tatters.

Ntonya, from Gorton, first met Yarde on a night out in Manchester shortly after he had left his girlfriend. However, she ended up ringing police and falsely accusing him of raping another woman - which saw him arrested and the centre of a police investigation for five months until prosecutors decided to bring no charges.

Ntonya ended up arrested herself and convicted of stalking Yarde at Manchester Crown Court in February 2025. She was called an ‘attention-seeking narcissist’ whose behaviour towards Yarde was ‘highly abusive and damaging’ and was eventually jailed in April 2025 for breaching a restraining order against him.

Sandra Ntonya (Image: Manchester Evening News)

Now, Yarde has spoken about how he has rebuilt his life overseas following the ordeal that effectively derailed his rugby career. The 33-year-old has taken a dramatically different path since walking away from professional rugby, trading the pitch for the classroom as he works towards obtaining his commercial pilot’s licence in Portugal.

Despite his innocence, the ordeal took a profound toll on Yarde, who played for England 13 times. It left him unable to play rugby for a considerable period and feeling as though his life had been placed on hold indefinitely, WalesOnline reports. At Ntonya’s sentencing, the court heard the impact was ‘profound’ on the player, saying that following the allegations his contract was terminated and his mental health suffered.

‘It was very, very tough’

And speaking on The Good, The Bad and The Rugby podcast, Yarde opened up about the harrowing experience and its lasting impact.

“It was very, very tough. I obviously knew within myself that I had never done anything wrong, but as an athlete and especially someone who’s basically within the media, you can’t really say anything.

“It lasted a lot longer than I thought it was going to happen. I spent six months just in the dark, it’s almost like I was guilty just via association because there never was a charge, there was nothing.

Marland Yarde of England (Image: Getty Images)

“I just wanted my life to be back to normal, that was really hard to take. Once something like this happens, say you lose your family, lose your job, lose your income, your character is destroyed - there’s so many different foundations of stuff that just evaporates.

“Everything that I had, your security, your job, where I was living, everything else was just completely eradicated. You still feel in prison in your life.”

Read the full article at the Manchester Evening News.