Worcester coach Richard Hill was furious after his side conceded a last-minute try in Friday's 29-23 loss to Gloucester.
They also had back Errie Claassens sent off for tripping Jonny May in a nerve-jangling conclusion to the Aviva Premiership battle with referee David Rose awarding a penalty score, which was converted, after consulting the TMO.
That final try earned Gloucester a victory denying Worcester a valuable win in their bid to pull away from the relegation fight at the foot of the table.
"It wasn't a penalty try. Paul Hodgson was covering across behind Errie," said Hill.
Hill also revealed the Worcester full-back was not happy to be penalised for a score which saw Gloucester take the points.
"Errie is distraught and devastated and it's a very cruel way to lose a game. We came within a whisker of beating them," he said.
But opposite number Nigel Davies was in no doubt that an offence had been committed.
"Jonny May shouldn't have been tripped," he said.
"I can't say he would definitely have scored but it was definitely a penalty. Jonny created chaos, he is an X Factor player and he is excellent when he is put in space."
Despite the defeat, Hill could not fault his players who pushed Gloucester all
the way.
"I thought we played some really good rugby. We played with a huge amount of effort and intent," he said.
"Ill discipline did cost with Sam Betty's yellow card and despite talking about it at half-time we still gave away two penalties with minutes of the restart."
Davies was happy with the win but not with his side's performance.
"It's a very tough league and every win is important especially as we had a hard game at Wasps last Sunday and this was a quick turnaround," said Davies.
"We worked hard to give ourselves that late chance and played with a lot of character. There were good patterns of play but in the first half our kicking was atrocious.
"We are not the finished article and there is a lot of growth to come."
Comments
ArmchairGeneral says...
You trip someone up to stop them scoring a try, it's clear they're going for a try, in the last minutes with the downside of a few minutes in the bin till the whistle blows and full knowledge that a 3 pointer eans they lose. I dont care if one more tackler may have got to him. Warriors can not complain. It's cynical cheating that would have robbed Glaws of a 50/50 chance of a win. However i did not see it and cant be sure it was a purposeful trip; you have to assume so.
Posted 22:17 24th February 2013