Diamond demands law change while accusing Tigers of illegal activity
Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond wants to outlaw the driving maul from an attacking five metre lineout to improve the spectacle for fans.
The former Worcester Warriors boss has also claimed Leicester Tigers, who arrive at Kingston Park on Friday night, use illegal blockers when they implement this try-scoring tactic.
Leicester scored three tries in their 27-25 loss to Gloucester last Friday night with all of them coming from driving mauls close to the opposition try line. Diamond is promoting the idea of stopping this as a try-scoring tactic from five metres but retaining it as a lineout option elsewhere on the pitch.
He said: “The sooner we get the five metre maul from a lineout taken out of the game the better spectacle it will become. You cannot defend it at the moment and most of the time you never see the bloody ball put over the try line – it’s just a melee.
“Leicester must be using a new Australian technique with Dan McKellar (Tigers head coach) because they have got blockers all over those driving mauls and they are quite illegal and I am hoping the (RFU) referee department will be looking at them this week.
"They scored three driving maul tries against Gloucester and will be kicking the ball a lot against us and we are going to have a really tough game on our hands.
“One of the first things I would do is take that (five metre driving maul) out of the game. I think you should only be able to move the ball off the top of the lineout and at the moment it is the opposite of running rugby and you could say that you can kick a penalty to the corner but you have to come off the top, not maul it over.
"We are trying to make the game commercially better and also better on the eye by speeding up the game but we are world class at shooting ourselves in the foot. People don’t want to see a melee of 16 people moving a metre and it’s a fantastic try! They will catch on in the end.”
Newcastle gave away 17 penalties losing 25-16 at Exeter Chiefs on Saturday and also saw two players handed yellow cards to further hamper their bid to end their winless run in the Gallagher Premiership.
"I will give the players nine penalties a match but 17 is far too many,” added Diamond.
Latest Comments
The match experience still sucks at SR games, irrespective of the game being a little quicker. Rugby has to compete with so much in the modern world, if you’re going to get people to leave their houses and pay to watch a game in winter then the experience has to be worthwhile.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
Go to comments