Leicester Tigers' Richard Cockerill fumes at referee's 'guessing'
Exasperated Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill has appealed to the game's top brass to "educate" referees after launching a scathing attack on Saturday's official Andrew Small.
After watching his side jump to third place in the Aviva Premiership table with a thrilling 17-12 win over Gloucester, Cockerill said the RFU's head of elite referee development, Ed Morrison, had to put a stop to the inconsistencies which he thinks are ruining the game.
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Leicester Tigers director of rugby Richard Cockerill
Small handed out four yellow cards, but Cockerill felt Gloucester should have been more harshly dealt with in a scrum area that Leicester dominated.
"Enough is enough. It has to end," fumed Cockerill, who could barely contain his anger.
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Responding to the official's interpretations of a set-piece, which saw the visitors penalised 10 times, Cockerill claimed that Small "didn't understand the game" and that he was "guessing" on a number of crucial calls.
It is not the first time Cockerill has been dismayed by the performance of referees this season. Alain Rolland's display in Treviso causing him particular ire.
It seems Saturday's contest was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Tigers won a thrilling game as Anthony Allen's second-half try helped them overcome a 9-3 deficit.
"We had a massively dominant set-piece because we spend our money there," said Cockerill. "We train hard and we work at it but we didn't get the reward we should have.
"They were destroyed for most of the game, they got penalised 10 times there, got warned twice and only got one man in the bin. Where is the consistency? 'Guessing' is the word I use.
"It's not good enough. Big games decide championships and European places. They have to get it right, yet Gloucester were allowed to do whatever they wanted.
"Sides come here and push the boundaries, which is fair play to them, but they don't get refereed.
"Every time we were in our half, we got penalised and they kicked at goal.
"When we carried the ball, they were in at the side and cheating the whole time. The referee didn't manage it.
"This is a professional era now and we spend all of our time doing our research on referees. Yet today, the scrum was refereed so poorly, what's the point?
"We need to educate them (referees) and Rob Andrew (RFU director of elite rugby) and Ed Morrison need to do that.
"If the refs don't do it right, they shouldn't get the games," added Cockerill.
Comments
by Snaggy
Tuesday, January 01 2013, 7:51PM
“Perhaps Mr Cockrell should put a bit more time and effort into coaching the backs because week in and week out they are hopeless. However, at least they show the consistency which he believes the referees are lacking!”
by crombieman
Tuesday, January 01 2013, 5:16PM
“the second scrum warning Hamilton got was a team warning - the ref then penalised Glos "but could not identify" the culprit - so card the captain - simples!
if we follow Mr Small's logic as long as he can't see who it was then you just carry on offending!
I was told by [a very good amateur] ref years ago "if you can't tell which of the front row it was then threaten to card them all - it will soon stop!" Likewise if Hamilton knew he was going he would/might tell his front row not to collapse then we'd push them over or get close enough for a penalty try - mind you at Treviso inside our 22 was enough!
worryingly if other refs take a similar view to Mr Small the scrum becomes even further devalued............rugby league here we come!”
by Sheppyfox
Monday, December 31 2012, 3:21PM
“Did you go to the game??
The referee was atrocious in the first half they gave away 4 penalties at one set scrum yet the referee did nothing. This was deep inside their own 22.
His consistent inability to referee the offside line capped a totally incompetent display. Our players can't play when George Ford who plays very flat has players in his face from offside positions every time the ball is about to be passed to him!!!”
by tigersultra1_
Monday, December 31 2012, 3:05PM
“Im starting to get bored of excusses. The performance on Saturday was poor and the inability to breakdown the opposition when reduced to 14 is a bain of our season. Cockerill needs to stop blaming others. The ref made the decsions in real time, if your not happy with them... deal with it. We will end up trophy-less again this year. The ones to blame are the players. Granted the ref seemed a little card happy but so what. If we took advantage of the situation it could of played into our hands.”