Leicester Tigers boss Richard Cockerill revealed his frustration with both his players and the referee after Saturday's loss to Harlequins.
All of Leicester's points came courtesy of three penalties from England fly-half Toby Flood in the 22-9 defeat, leaving Cockerill to rue a number of missed chances.
"We lacked composure when we had opportunities, which is disappointing," said the Leicester coach
Leicester suffered no more than injured pride and Cockerill admitted his side had to improve after dropping more points following last week's draw at Saracens.
"We need to be better at taking those opportunities. There was a vital part in the second half when we had a run of line-outs which we cocked up.
"You will have to ask the head of the Elite Referee Department how many times they have to pull a maul down before you get a yellow card or a penalty try. And in the first five minutes we had a line break and they killed the ball and it's just a penalty.
"But they came and played and fair play to them. They ran hard and played well, they are a good side.
"I don't care who is missing though, we have to be better and more clinical."
Comments
jamesliveinhope says...
The yellow card is a sanction at the discretion of the ref, there are no rules about its application. It perhaps could have been argued that Quins could have had a penalty try when a maul was collapsed on the line or when Mike Brown was prevented held off a loose ball in-goal.
I know that, when its my team, every penalty offence against us should be carded as far as I'm concerned, but you sometimes wonder whether Cockerill is the best person to represent Tigers immediately after a match (in fact it seems to take him about three days to calm down).
Posted 15:41 24th September 2012
rugby_rockstar says...
fair to say that most european big guns will not be losing much sleep over Leicester tigers. I think there's better to come but i'm unsure if the improvemnet is going to be enough. The fact is that peices of the Leicester jigsaw are still unaccounted for.
Posted 15:02 24th September 2012
lawynd says...
As I stated on the match report, Leicester didn't deserve to win. That doesn't however mean that Cockers didn't have a point - a maul was collapsed whilst going forward two metres from the line, to most people that would be a minimum of a yellow card and the possibility of a penalty try.
Posted 13:54 24th September 2012
BMakka8 says...
@pierredelot1...if that is still your view of Tigers gameplay then you are obviously on a time travelling mission from the 1980's or just haven't watched the tigers play for many years. Tigers had the best try scoring record in the premiership last year by some distance, and scored try bonus points in the first two rounds this year. Maybe you are thinking of Saracens?
The problem on Saturday was a lack of discipline and an insistance on running at men, not gaps. This was exacerbated by RC's refusal to replace Flood, who obviously isn't in form, and appears to be missing Ben Youngs.He needs to give Ford a go.
I admit that RC does open his mouth too much about the refs, but he had a point about the collapsed mauls.
Posted 13:03 24th September 2012
trelawney says...
Mr Cockerill, please do everybody a favour and go on a referees course, then you will be able to understand what happens on the playing field. I know you played for England, but do as a former Saracens player (Glen Jackson) become a referee, like him, of top quality. I watched a game where he was the ref and he was not 'noticed' by the commentators because he let the game 'flow'.
Posted 20:00 23rd September 2012
pierredelot1 says...
Haven't seen the game yet. But no doubt Leicester played there usual open game, moving the ball at every opportunity and relying on their skills wit and invention to win the game. Harlequins were obviously boring, methodical and intimidated the refferee with stick it up your jumper tactics and the ability to stick to plan A no matter what the cost. Must watch it though, Leicester are over in October to face Les Toulousains, who finally showed a bit of get up and go this weekend. It's always good to send the Tigers home with their tales between their legs.
Posted 16:47 23rd September 2012