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.

- PAUL REES

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.