
Diamond: We all take collective responsibility
Steve Diamond insisted it was a case of collective responsibility after his Newcastle Falcons side fell to a 42-10 home loss to Leicester Tigers on Saturday.
Speaking after the Gallagher Premiership encounter at Kingston Park, the director of rugby said: “For a side that didn’t have their coach here today, Leicester were up against a team who looked like they hadn’t been coached in six weeks.
“I’ve got to take responsibility for that performance, which I didn’t see coming, and I’ll have to look at how I’ve prepared the side. We just weren’t at it, mentally as much as anything, and we’ve sat down as a playing and coaching group after the final whistle.
“Nobody is shirking responsibility because it’s on all of us, from me through to the coaching team, the players and right down to the kit man. I’m not hanging anybody out to dry because it was a collective failure, and we’ll deal with it as a group.
“In our last couple of games we’ve been highly competitive, but today we weren’t. We’d made some great strides during pre-season but tonight showed the gulf when we’re not on it for whatever reason.
“We have to ask the question as to why that was the case, and one thing about this group, they’re really honest. They’re all feeling it down in that changing room, but we’ll look at it properly and go through it in a proper, structured way.”
Diamond added: “The performance was unacceptable, and we all owe an apology to our supporters and sponsors who came along and continue to get behind us.
“What we won’t do, though, is be reactionary. I won’t be hauling the lads in on Sunday or anything, they’ll get the chance to recover properly and then we’ll go through it with them on Tuesday as we always do. We were beaten comprehensively in all areas, and I’m a fool if I say there were any positives in that performance.
“We weren’t abrasive in defence, our discipline was thrown out the window, and in attack we just ran across the field, throwing miss passes which are easy to defend. Leicester had a good game plan and executed it efficiently, and you can’t argue with the scoreline.”
Trying to plot a way forward heading into Friday’s derby at his former team, Sale Sharks, the director of rugby said: “The one thing I will say about this bunch – they really do care about the club.
“There’s nobody in there smiling or not bothered about the situation we’re in. They’re all proud people, as I am myself, and there’s a shared commitment from everyone to stick together and do the work that’s required to pull ourselves out of this.
“It was an unacceptable performance from myself just as much as the players, and we’ll be very honest in our debrief as to what we all need to do to start turning things round.
“There’s a time for an arm round the shoulder and a time for tough love, but what we all need to realise is we’re paid professionals and we’ve got one job, which is to win games of rugby. We were far from that tonight.”