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Diamond demands law change while accusing Tigers of illegal activity
By Chris Jones
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.
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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.
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“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.
Don’t like Diamond but the maul is a joke, the sight of a choke tackle creating a maul then players in offside positions flopping on it killing the ball but then getting the put in?
Banal.
Don’t agree about banning 5m mauls, but he is generally right that illegal blocking should be better managed. Refs are completely inconsistent about binding, offside and obstruction in mauls.
If the 5m maul is proving too hard to defend then change the rule to make it 10m.
Teams will just kick it 6m out then, won’t they …