The radical TMO change Steve Diamond has called for following his six-match ban

Lawrence Nolan
Stave Diamond Newcastle

Newcastle boss Steve Diamond has been talking about rugby's TMOs

Steve Diamond has called on rugby administrators to appoint recently retired players as TMOs rather than have former referees reviewing the in-game match footage.

The Newcastle Falcons boss copped a six-game ban earlier this week for his X-rated post-game reaction to the Falcons’ late 15-17 loss at Exeter Chiefs on March 29.

Diamond received a season-ending suspension after calling a group of match officials “c***s” before suggesting to TMO official David Rose that he should retire.

Although banned from hands-on involvement with his Newcastle team in Friday night’s plucky 34-35 loss to defending Premiership champions Northampton, the Falcons coach did appear on TNT Sports for a pre-match interview.

Asked what he would like to see happen for the system to improve, Diamond answered: “The system has to improve across the board. It needs more investment, like rugby does across the board completely.

‘Sometimes somebody has to say it…’

“Do the TMOs need to be former referees? Can they not be players who have just come out of the game? You don’t need to know the law book; you need to know what a forward pass is, a knock-on and what foul play is.

“So they could branch out as they have done with Paul Hull, a former player being head of the referees’ organisation. So there is lots of things. I don’t think anything that I said is new. It’s just sometimes somebody has to say it – and it generally always happens to be me.”

Diamond also spoke about his confidence in the Newcastle coaching staff doing their jobs well to make up for his lack of match day involvement.

“To be fair, it’s only this evening where the lack of involvement is,” he explained. “Everything has been pretty normal in the build-up.

“We have got Alan Dickens, Micky Ward, Scotty (MacLeod) and Mark Laycock who work with me every day, so they will be controlling it. No, we’re confident. We need to put in a performance tonight in our penultimate home game, get over the woes of Exeter and get on with it.”

Speaking to the Newcastle club website after the one-point loss, Dickens rued the chaotic concession of three tries near the end of the first half.

“That end to the first half was massive on a really frustrating evening, but I’m enthused by the way the boys battled back and took it right to the wire,” he said.

“The players spoke really positively during half-time about coming back into it and trying to pull off a special comeback.

“We very nearly did it, and I’m told it was the first time in more than two years we have scored a four-try bonus point at home in the Premiership.”

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Newcastle Steve Diamond