Diamond out to add some steel
EVEN someone without Steve Diamond’s coaching experience would have known that taking over at Newcastle was never going to turn them into an overnight sensation.
Diamond became the Falcons’ consultant director of rugby at the start of the year, the fifth person to lead the Premiership’s bottom, winless club in two years. He was confident they would not finish the campaign without a victory, but it did not materialise, although it should have against Leicester at Kingston Park.
Newcastle’s 40-point defeat last weekend to the team immediately above them in the table, Gloucester, meant their losing streak in the top flight stretched to 21 matches.
Their only success in the last 26 came at home to Gloucester in March last year and with a crop of young, homegrown players leaving for top four clubs in the close season, Diamond is facing the most formidable challenge of his coaching career.
The salary cap is going
up to £6.4m next season, but Newcastle will be nowhere near the old mark of £5m and will rely on Diamond’s expertise in identifying players who will make a difference without blowing a hole in the budget.
He will look to turn Kingston Park into a ground where opponents are wary of treading. Newcastle’s average margin of defeat on the road this season was 29 points. At home it was 13 with only Saracens meeting with little resistance. They conceded 40 points or more away from home in five of their nine matches.
“Newcastle have always been hard to beat at home and if we achieve that it will make for a competitive league,” said Diamond. “We are a nearly team and we have to get away from that. Because of the transition of coaches in recent years, there is
always an excuse in the building.
“If you have the ball for 20 minutes in the other team’s half, as we did in Gloucester, but do not score and then concede 21 points from three errors, that is not bad luck or not having the rub of the green and suffering from an unlucky bounce.
“You have to be able to convert chances into points. It is the job of the coaches is to make the players better and I do not think that has been happening for a while. That is my task.”
Newcastle kept going at Gloucester when the cause had long been lost, but Diamond found little consolation in perseverance having witnessed the gulf between his side and the team immediately above them. They avoided relegation for the second successive season because it was off the table, but they cannot rely on that in the future.
“The players are plucky and you want to have a bit of steel running through them, but it has been a downward trend here for a long time. If you brought in someone like Eddie Jones, Warren Gatland, Steve Hansen or Rassie Erasmus, would they be able to change the momentum?
“It takes time and it has not been tougher than I thought it would be. The recruitment here has not been fantastic for various reasons. You can bring in one or two players from the Championship and survive with them, but recruit them en masse and you become a Championship team. Results over the last 12 months show they are exactly that.”
Former Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg, who retired last summer, has been linked with the club, but Diamond said there was no substance to the speculation.
“I am after people who have vast experience within the Premiership or a similar competition who are hard wearing, durable and will not let the results we have suffered this season happen on a regular basis. There will be eight or nine in total.”
Diamond has already signed Cameron Neild, a forward he had at Sale and Worcester, Edinburgh prop Lucan de Bruin, Leicester outside-half Kieran Wilkinson and Gloucester three-quarter Alex Hearle. The Sale centre Connor Doherty, brought through at the Sharks by Diamond, joined last week.
“Pre-season has already been mapped out,” said Diamond. “We will not be going anywhere flash and as not many of our lot will be involved in the international scene, most of the players will be in for the full duration.
“Those who are staying have to come back fit and most who are remaining I wanted to. They will be supplemented by the players who have already agreed to come and a couple more I am looking at.
“We can turn the results around. I have never been in the position before where a season ended without a win and I do not want it to happen again. The task will not be achieved quickly because you cannot take a team as demoralised as this into the top four. But you can get it off the bottom.
“Gloucester was the end of a dreadful year on the field and the hard work begins now. I know the job I have taken on. There is no point in reviewing the season, as I would normally do. The log does not lie and if it was not for the entry criteria stopping the Championship winners coming up we would be relegated.
“We have to put a line in the sand and build up from it and set out what we think we can achieve. I am very positive about the future.”