Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Steve Diamond has been banned for six games due to “wholly unacceptable verbal abuse” of match officials. 

A disciplinary panel convened on Friday to review two incidents of abuse from Diamond towards the TMO and match officials following Newcastle’s Premiership fixture at Exeter Chiefs on Saturday March 29 – a game in which Exeter secured a 17-15 win in the final play at Sandy Park.

Sam Hillas KC, independent disciplinary panel chair, said: “Mr Diamond’s behaviour on 29 March was wholly unacceptable: the language used was inappropriate, abusive and entirely contrary to rugby’s core values.

“There is no place for abuse of match officials and this applies with equal force whether dealing with the professional or community game.

“Mr Diamond has, quite rightly, apologised to the match officials for his conduct on the day and the panel has made it clear that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated and should not be repeated.

“Mr Diamond accepted that his conduct was prejudicial to the interests of the game.

“The two issues for the panel were, firstly whether the words used towards the TMO amounted to disrespect or verbal abuse of a match official and secondly, whether the circumstances of what happened after the match gave rise to two separate charges. The panel determined that Mr Diamond’s course of conduct should be dealt with as one charge of verbal abuse.

“This offence was charged as a breach of RFU rule 5.12 and, as such, the panel was not bound by the sanctions table. The panel had regard to the entry points for breaches of law 9.28 (match official abuse) as well as the relevant mitigating and aggravating features and determined a ban of six weeks was proportionate in all the circumstances.

“The full judgment will be made available in due course.”

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