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Winless Newcastle boss Steve Diamond calls for relegation return
Newcastle Falcons boss Steve Diamond has said he would back a fast track system that would allow London Irish, Worcester Warriors and Wasps to join the Championship if the three former Gallagher Premiership clubs that went into administration pay off their rugby creditors, while also calling for a return of relegation in England’s top tier.
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Diamond has previously held an advisory role with the Rugby Football Union helping the governing body create a sustainable strategy for the future of the second tier in England.
The Newcastle boss is acutely aware of the ramifications of administration for a rugby club having been Worcester’s director of rugby when they went to the wall and was part of a consortium that tried to take them over.
He said: “The first thing London Irish, Worcester Warriors and Wasps have to do – if they can be given lifeblood – is pay their rugby creditors. That is not a legal obligation but the RFU have regulations that state that and everyone signs up to it. I think they should come back into the Championship as long as they have paid their rugby creditors.
“The creditors are staff, suppliers, agents and player image rights contracts. Fortunes have been lost at all of these clubs. There are people at Worcester who didn’t earn a lot of money and weren’t paid for three or four months.
“The players are different because they can try and find another club or use their skill set to go into industry. If those three clubs sort out the creditors then they need to have a financial plan which is unlike the rest of the Premiership – not to lose two, three, four million quid whatever it is. If you pay off the creditors you immediately gain goodwill in the area.
“If they come back into the Championship then they would add (to the competition) because Wasps are massive and London Irish and Worcester are big brands in rugby. If the Championship was to go to 16 teams then that would be better or even more.”
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Diamond is facing his own major challenge, trying to make Newcastle truly competitive having accepted the role as consultant director of rugby in the north east with the club bottom of the table and still searching for a first league win of the season as they prepare to host Bath at Kingston Park on Friday.
There will be no relegation this season but Diamond believes that kind of jeopardy is vital for the future of the Premiership – if the top Championship club satisfies the criteria put in place.
He added: “My experience as an advisor is that one of the biggest hurdles is the criteria but you have to have a minimum criteria and I do welcome promotion and relegation. Not many people in my shoes would say that because it gives you another bit of motivation with the jeopardy of it. I am on a honeymoon at the moment because I can’t go down.”
“If the clubs, and there are probably half a dozen clubs who would want to come up, if they fit the criteria of the minimum standards by all means invest in the team like the Premiership have and give it a crack.
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“Most of the people in the Championship are sensible and they are incurring losses themselves – significantly lower then the Premiership clubs.
“The most recent owners in the Premiership Ged Mason and Simon Orange at Sale have said they are coming into invest and they have.”
Comments on RugbyPass
A distinct discomfort with the officiating they were probably selected from the local IRA narcos branch along with the commentators bloody fly tippers.
1 Go to commentsWow, never thought I would read that
1 Go to commentsExcellent match. Great to see Keenan and Ryan back for Leinster. Super result for Ulster. Season is turning around.
1 Go to comments“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”. So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?
1 Go to commentsBrumbies hand, knocked a Crusaders hand. Therefore, knock on in goal. Crusaders, goal line drop out should’ve been awarded. most likely after that 24 each at full time, so extra time would’ve been the right an entertaining outcome. Act Jim
1 Go to commentsSpeell cehck
1 Go to commentsColeman is gaawwwwnnn.
1 Go to commentsnext SA head coach?
3 Go to commentsGreat try by van Poortvliet.
1 Go to commentsThey have been cruelled by injuries but almost nobody (Sevu Reece and Fletcher Newell big exceptions) has played above himself which regularly happened before. Surely Scott Robertson had maintained the recruitment programme and it looks like a reasonable squad. Last in this competition will stall a lot of careers. Penny seems likeable. But it’s not enough even though this was better. We haven’t been good enough and it’s not helped by the “it’s been 15 years since… “etc “after nearly every match. Seems somehow a soft gifting of something once valuable. Kieran Read giving comments last week almost choked describing the easy surrender of possession by the forwards. I’d love to think that the senior players some of whom are back can show enough pride in the jersey to test the Blues next week.
3 Go to commentsWho will Joe select for the back three with so many in form candidates? Just hope he doesn’t get shafted like Dave Rennie and to a lesser extent Deans.
6 Go to commentsAlways reluctant to blame a coach when losses rack up, but Penney must go. The backline is dysfunctional and the coach must carry the can. No cohesion, no idea and in many cases, minimal skill. The trains out of Roma St depart faster than the ball from Crusaders’ set pieces. Wouldn’t be surprised if the forwards went on strike.
3 Go to commentsAdding to earlier comment. Cullen Grace has been playing great at no6. Lio-Willie , who was on fire a few weeks ago, had a bad game. I think Cullen should have been moved to 8 earlier, Dominic Gardiner on earlier. Feel for Quinten Strange , put in a big shift .
6 Go to commentsWe dominated the scrums Ben Curry was all over pitch again .Surely James Harper got to be one of best English tightheads
1 Go to commentsRoos is a better option at 6 than 8 for the boks. Needs to work on his windgat though.
1 Go to commentsThe Sharks’ 2nd team maybe?
1 Go to comments‘radical’
1 Go to commentsCome back to Christchurch Robbie, please!
1 Go to commentsI think there is zero chance Sam Cane will be selected for another Test. There is simply no point except sentimentality. Razor is not sentimental- ask Wyatt Crocket. Razor is a ruthless selector
5 Go to comments> It would be best described as an elegant solution to what was potentially going to be a significant problem for new All Blacks coach Scott Robertson. It is a problem the mad population of New Zealand will have to cope with more and more as All Blacks are able to continue their careers in NZ post RWCs. It will not be a problem for coaches, who are always going to start a campaign with the captain for the next WC in mind. > Cane, despite his warrior spirit, his undoubted commitment to every team he played for and unforgettable heroics against Ireland in last year’s World Cup quarter-final, was never unanimously admired or respected within New Zealand while he was in the role. Neither was McCaw, he was considered far too passive a captain and then out of form until his last world cup where everyone opinions changed, just like they would have if Cane had won the WC. > It was never easy to see where Cane, or even if, he would fit into Robertson’s squad given the new coach will want to be building a new-look team with 2027 in mind. > Cane will win his selections on merit and come the end of the year, he’ll sign off, he hopes, with 100 caps and maybe even, at last, universal public appreciation for what was a special career. No, he won’t. Those returning from Japan have already earned the right to retain their jersey, it’s in their contract. Cane would have been playing against England if he was ready, and found it very hard to keep his place. Perform, and they keep it however. Very easy to see where Cane could have fit, very hard to see how he could have accomplished it choosing this year as his sabbatical instead of 2025, and that’s how it played out (though I assume we now know what when NZR said they were allowing him to move his sabbatical forward and return to NZ next year, they had actually agreed to simply select him for the All Blacks from overseas, without any chance he was going to play in NZ again). With a mammoth season of 15 All Black games they might as well get some value out of his years contract, though even with him being of equal character to Richie, I don’t think they should guarantee him his 100 caps. That’s not what the All Blacks should be about. He absolutely has to play winning football.
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