Diamond handed 18-week ban
Sale director of sport Steve Diamond was hit with a lengthy 18-week touchline ban on Wednesday for verbally abusing Test referee Wayne Barnes during an English Premiership match last month.
The ban won’t expire until June 20, well after the end of the English season.
It was imposed by a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel on Wednesday after Diamond pleaded guilty to a charge of verbally abusing Barnes and his assistants Rhys Davies and Gareth Copsey at the end of the 21-19 loss away to London Irish on January 8.
Sale were beaten after Barnes awarded the Exiles a late penalty for a scrum offence that was kicked by Adrian Jarvis.
The RFU charged Diamond under rule 5.12, which covers “conduct prejudicial to the interests of the Union and/or game”.
“Referees strive to do the best they can in a highly-pressurised environment,” said a statement issued by the disciplinary panel.
“Wayne Barnes is acknowledged as one of the best referees in the game.
“Referees are entitled to respect at all times, whether the final whistle has been blown or not.”
Barnes was involved in fresh controversy earlier this month when he did not send off Wales’s Bradley Davies for a tip tackle on Ireland’s Donnacha Ryan during the opening round of the Six Nations but made do with a yellow card instead.
However, to be fair to the Englishman he had not seen the offence and it was linesman Dave Pearson who had seen the incident and recommended a yellow card.
Barnes then gave Wales what turned out to be a late, match-winning penalty, in their 23-21 victory after yellow carding Ireland’s Stephen Ferris for a tackle on Ian Evans.
Many pundits believed that was a harsh decision and at a subsequent citing hearing Ferris escaped further punishment while Davies, whom even Wales coach Warren Gatland thought should have received a red card, got a seven-week, tournament-ending, ban.
The International Rugby Board (IRB) then took the unusual step of issuing a public statement of support for one of their referees, saying “in dismissing the citing no criticism of the referee’s (Barnes’s) on field decision should be taken or inferred”.
Many New Zealand fans have still to forgive Barnes for what they believe was his failure to spot a forward pass in the build-up to a France try during the All Blacks’ shock 2007 World Cup quarterfinal defeat in Cardiff.
Meanwhile, Julian White of Leicester Tigers has been suspended for one week for stamping, contrary to Law 10(4)(b), during the Aviva Premiership match at Exeter Chiefs on Saturday, February 11.
White, who pleaded guilty, was suspended from February 15 to February 22 by an RFU Disciplinary Panel of His Honour Judge Sean Enright (chair), John Brennan and Geoff Payne at the Coventry Holiday Inn.
He can play again on February 23. He was also ordered to pay £500 in costs.
AFP
