Cockerill blows whistle on the standard of refs
Edinburgh head coach richard Cockerill last night launched a withering attack on the standard of refereeing in the guinness Pro14.
Although his team secured their first win of the season, he was far from happy by the officiating from Welsh referee ian davies.
Cockerill, who feels the low standard of officials calls into question the credibility of the league, said: ‘it was a disappointing spectacle at times and some of that was our fault. but, as you well know, the officiating has not been good over the last two weeks. it was probably even worse tonight — 15 penalties to four for us but just one yellow card.
‘if you are going to let teams cheat like that, then that is what you get. That is how it is.
‘it threatens the credibility of the competition. i am sending in reports every week back to greg garner, who is in charge of the refs, but things have to improve.
‘We have to see improvement because, in the last two weeks, there has been game-changing moments they are getting wrong. it’s every week.
‘i get feedback from greg and, over the past two weeks, he has agreed with me. All i want is for the game to be refereed properly and not for the ref to decide results.
‘We are trying to play out there. if they can’t scrummage out there, that is not my fault. referee what you see. Their no16 should have gone to the bin for a cynical moment in the game and we should have had a penalty try.
‘Where do we go from here? i don’t know. We’re trying to play and be positive but are getting no reward.
‘You want the referees to be accountable and show due diligence when they come into a game. Simple as that. Speak to the Pro14 board about it.’
Edinburgh should have scored more than just two tries — one from duhan van der Merwe and another from Pierre Schoeman.
Even though Connacht defended superbly, Edinburgh did not have enough spark in their back division to put them under any sort of real pressure.
They were also guilty of letting the irish outfit within a converted try for the last six minutes when they seemed to panic and tire.
Edinburgh had to make a lastminute change, with Jaco van der Walt moving from the bench into the starting XV to replace fly-half Simon hickey, who pulled out because of illness. Winger Jamie Farndale took the South African’s place on the bench.
The hosts thought they had taken the lead after 11 minutes when Tom brown touched down but it was ruled out after referee davies judged Matt Scott put a foot in touch in the build-up.
Edinburgh had all the early pressure and their cause was helped by Connacht’s indiscipline after 24 minutes.
henry Pyrgos was about to make a pass when he had the ball knocked out of his hands by flanker Jarrad butler, who was yellow-carded.
it proved to be an expensive error as the home side took the lead from the resultant scrum.
When the ball came out to Pyrgos, he exchanged passes with blair Kinghorn before the scrum-half played in winger Van der Merwe. Fly-half Van der Walt kicked the conversion.
it took a full half hour before Connacht got anywhere near the Edinburgh line and, when they did, great work at the breakdown by grant gilchrist stole the ball back from them.
The irish side were struggling at the scrum and it was no surprise that young Connacht prop Conan O’donnell was replaced by Peter McCabe in the 36th minute.
The change had an immediate impact as McCabe helped his side win the ball from an Edinburgh put-in at the scrum.
he could not do it twice in a row, though, and Edinburgh were awarded a penalty at the next scrum and Van der Walt claimed three points with the last kick of the half.
The visitors started the second half on the attack after harsh words at half-time from their head coach Andy Friend. but it proved to be a false dawn for the irish, although it did take Edinburgh ten minutes into the second period to gain the upper hand again.
Cockerill’s team should have grabbed their second try in 50 minutes when Kinghorn played in Van der Merwe.
All the South African had to do was catch the ball and walk it in at the corner.
instead, he took his eye off it before knocking on with the try line at his mercy.
however, five minutes later, Edinburgh did touch down through prop Schoeman.
gilchrist caught the ball at the line-out. The maul did the rest and the Springbok came up with the ball to score the try.
Van der Walt was successful with the conversion to give the hosts a 17-0 lead.
in the 63rd minute, Connacht got a fine try with their first serious attack.
Fly-half Jack Carty played the ball over the head of Van der Merwe to winger niyi Adeolokun, who scored in the corner. Carty put over the conversion.
These were nervous moments for the home side, who were now feeling rattled for the first time in the match.
With six minutes left, the irish outfit cut the deficit to seven points after Carty put over a penalty.
Connacht finished the stronger team, putting massive pressure on the home side.
it was Edinburgh’s turn to frantically defend and they were relieved to hear the final whistle which signalled their first win in three Pro14 matches so far this season.