Cockerill upset with refereeing calls

Editor

Edinburgh head coach Richard Cockerill says his side is being harshly treated by referees.

Cockerill believes two of Scarlets’ four tries at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday would not have been awarded had referee John Lacey used the Television Match Official. The Irish referee, however, did used the TMO in his decision to send off prop Michele Rizzo.

Cockerill agreed with Rizzo’s dismissal for striking Scarlets’ scrum-half Gareth Davies on the head with his shoulder. However, he expressed his anger at the fact that the official did not use television replays to check what he felt were two wrongly awarded tries.

Cockerill told Edinburgh News: “The letter of the law says, whether your arm is up or not, it’s a shoulder to the head and I suppose you have no choice. Rules is rules and of course it was very costly.

“I thought we were a bit unfortunate at times, because I thought the second try was crossing all day long. “I don’t know why the referee didn’t go to the TMO because we were live on television. Unfortunately, because it’s Edinburgh, it doesn’t get checked.

“I also thought the third try was a forward pass by a mile and the players are saying the player is in touch when he passes it.

“I just want us to be treated fairly. We are supposed to lose and that is how I felt we were refereed. That is disappointing because John Lacey is an international referee and I expect him to referee better than that.

“I want Edinburgh to be refereed fairly and I didn’t think we were refereed fairly.”

When asked how others felt about how the side have been refereed in the past, Cockerill added: “It was mentioned to me by the players, coming into the season, and I thought you saw that. The players asked him to look at the second try on the TMO and he refused. Watch it, it was crossing. That’s a big call because we would have been 8-7 up at half-time. And if you scratch those two tries out, we get a bonus point.

“I have no problem with the result because Scarlets were the better side. But I thought our effort, endeavour and mentality deserved more out of the game.”

Cockerill has urged fans to be patient and understanding with Edinburgh but believes they are heading in the right direction.

“This place is not built on solid foundations and we have got to understand that and keep building. Four years ago, Scarlets were muddling around and now they are the champions,” he said.

“You have to start somewhere and we are starting to make those changes. It’s not going to be easy and it’s not going to be painless. So, that is how you have to attack it.

“If the expectation is that we should be in the top three and be competing in the play offs, I’m going to get sacked because that is not reality at this point. So, we need to build the squad and give our young players the right experience.”