There is this odd thing where accusations of diving are an insult to a player/team/manager.
If you accuse a player of deliberately handling a ball to score/stop a goal. "Eh, it's up to the ref to spot these things" or "It's clear there's contact between the ball and the hand, I'm not sure it's deliberate, but you have to accept them"
If you accuse a player of deliberately fouling an opponent "He took one for the team, you'd rather he do that than let the attack into the box, cause then you can't touch him"
If you accuse a player of diving "How dare you accuse my player of cheating! I would never accept that sort of behaviour!"
It leads to pundits and referees being reluctant to accuse players of diving. So while we can look at the replay, see Townsend's leg straighten, his toes drag and say 'he's going down anyway', because a clear foul occurs while he is in the process of diving, refs will almost always give the foul. They would get slaughtered for booking someone for diving when a player has clattered into them (albeit while they are throwing themself to the ground) because of the attitude toward diving in this country.
If you accuse a player of deliberately handling a ball to score/stop a goal. "Eh, it's up to the ref to spot these things" or "It's clear there's contact between the ball and the hand, I'm not sure it's deliberate, but you have to accept them"
If you accuse a player of deliberately fouling an opponent "He took one for the team, you'd rather he do that than let the attack into the box, cause then you can't touch him"
If you accuse a player of diving "How dare you accuse my player of cheating! I would never accept that sort of behaviour!"
It leads to pundits and referees being reluctant to accuse players of diving. So while we can look at the replay, see Townsend's leg straighten, his toes drag and say 'he's going down anyway', because a clear foul occurs while he is in the process of diving, refs will almost always give the foul. They would get slaughtered for booking someone for diving when a player has clattered into them (albeit while they are throwing themself to the ground) because of the attitude toward diving in this country.