Steve Diamond, the Newcastle Falcons director of rugby, has been banned for the rest of the season after describing a group of match officials as “c****” and telling one of them they needed to retire.
Diamond was given a six-week ban after a Rugby Football Union (RFU) disciplinary hearing last week, meaning he will be unable to be involved on Newcastle matchdays for the remainder of the Premiership rugby campaign.
The experienced coach was remorseful and accepted his punishment, though has subsequently called for changes to be made to the television match official (TMO) process and for referees to take greater “accountability” for their decisions.
The charge related to the Falcons’ narrow 17-15 defeat at Exeter Chiefs in March. Exeter back row Greg Fisilau went over for a match-winning try in the final moments, though teammate Tamati Tua appeared to make contact with the head of Newcastle’s Alex Hearle at a ruck in the build-up.
Footage of the incident was not shown on the big screen nor reviewed by the officials, led by referee Adam Leal. After the match, Diamond was found to have encountered the match officials in the tunnel soon after and said to them: “I hope you c**** can sleep tonight”.
Later on, TMO David Rose was approached by Diamond during his post-match meal and repeatedly told “you need to retire”.
Diamond emailed the officials following a virtual hearing on 11 April, at which he pleaded guilty to the charge of conduct prejudicial to the game. A six-week ban was issued despite a statement from a senior member of the Northumberland Rugby Union Referees Society.
The former Worcester and Sale boss previously served a ban for verbally abusing match officials in 2017.
“There can be no excuse for calling a match official a ‘c***’ or for publicly calling a TMO’s fitness to act into question by suggesting he should retire,” the independent disciplinary panel said. “This applies as much to the professional game as to the community game.”
While apologetic for his actions, Diamond is disappointed by what he perceives as a lack of “accountability” surrounding officiating in the sport.
The Newcastle director of rugby said: “Let’s be honest, I’ve got a six-week ban for saying an inappropriate comment – which I’ve apologised for – to a professional referee in complete privacy.
“My six-week ban starts this week, the team of five were all in Europe last week. A huge mistake happened, not a knock-on, someone was blatantly hit in the face, an illegal action.
“If the ref can’t pick it up, because he can’t see everything and the AR can’t see everything, surely for goodness sake the TMO should be seeing these things?
“The system is flawed. We’re struggling to keep Newcastle alive here and Worcester beforehand. Maybe they need some more investment and more experienced people doing these jobs.
“There’s no accountability. We understand we have to have regulation and understand I can’t say what I said, but there’s got to be some accountability otherwise people keep making mistakes.”
Newcastle are bottom of the Premiership, trailing Exeter by 10 points. They host Northampton on Friday night.
