Wasps coach hits back over red card row
LEE Blackett has responded to Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick’s criticism of his Wasps side “shouting for a red card”, writes Bobby Bridge.
For only the second time in Premiership history on Saturday, three players were dismissed during Tigers’ 27-8 victory over Wasps at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road.
Jasper Wiese and Hanro Liebenberg were red carded for the hosts while former Tigers prop Brookes was given his marching orders shortly after half-time.
All three will appear before an online disciplinary panel this evening.
Tigers boss Borthwick was critical of the Wasps camp for their conduct in appealing to referee Craig
Maxwell-Keys and his team of officials to look into the flash-point incidents.
He said: “I don’t want us to be in a situation where you have people jumping up and down, shouting, up in arms.
“That is not the way I’d conduct myself, I coach the team not to conduct themselves like that.
“That’s the danger and you saw hints of it today.
“When I looked across I saw, when that incident happened, and I’m hearing people shouting for a red card, that’s not what should be happening in our game and I hope that’s dealt with very, very clearly, that we don’t conduct ourselves like that.”
Blackett, pictured, who has now lost both of his visits to Welford Road across his year as head coach of Wasps following Dai Young’s exit as director of rugby, had Borthwick’s criticism put to him during Wasps’ Monday media session ahead of their round 11 match against London Irish on Saturday.
“I think it’s an emotional sport, isn’t it,” said Blackett.
“I have too much respect for other clubs to talk about what other clubs do.
“If I had an issue I would speak to someone personally, I wouldn’t be using the media, definitely, to get my point across to another club.
“But having said that, it’s an emotional sport, it’s natural, it’s an instinct. People do it.
“Do we want people doing it, probably not. But we’re all emotional aren’t we? It happens week in, week out with everything we do.”
FORMER Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson is back in management after being appointed by Championship side Bristol City, writes Andy Turner.
The Robins sacked Dean Holden last week after six straight defeats, having started the campaign as one of the favourites to push for promotion.
Pearson, left, who guided the Foxes to the Premier League in 2013/14, has been appointed at Ashton Gate until the end of the season. It was during his second spell with Leicester from 2011-15 that the 57-year-old won a handful of accolades, including numerous Manager of the Month awards and the Championship title as he helped to lay the foundations for their Premier League title.
Pearson, whose last managerial post was at Watford last season, was due to observe last night’s Sky Bet Championship match against Middlesbrough before officially taking charge ahead of Saturday’s trip to Swansea City. He will work with the current assistant head coaches, Keith Downing and Paul Simpson.
City chairman Jon Lansdown said: “Nigel gives us the leadership and direction we need to lift the players’ confidence and to turn our form around.
“The initial appointment is until the end of the season, when we will re-assess the situation, hopefully with a view to the long term.
“However, the immediate priority for Nigel and the coaching team is to stop the current bad run and move us back up the table.”
Bristol City chief executive Mark Ashton said: “Nigel is a highly respected and experienced manager with a proven track record of success and we are looking forward to welcoming him to the club.”
City sit 15th in the Sky Bet Championship table, having lost their last seven games in all competitions after Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Barnsley.