Ref was wrong on penalties insists Sinckler

KYLE SINCKLER questioned how referee Angus Gardner decided the Highlanders had gained a dominance in the scrum that brought the two match-deciding penalties.

Sinckler departed the field along with Joe Marler and Rory Best as Jack McGrath, Ken Owens and Dan Cole formed a new front-row before the hour mark.

The next two scrums saw Australian Gardner penalise tighthead prop Cole, with French assistant referee Mathieu Raynal calling for Gardner to look out for the England front-row’s “long bind”.

The Highlanders were able to score a converted try through hooker Liam Coltman and a penalty from replacement Marty Banks.

Sinckler said: “There were no penalties conceded in the scrum for the whole game but then a new front-row comes on, the scrum collapses and the referee gives the penalty straight away.

“For me as a tighthead prop, it makes no sense. Ultimately that changes the game.

“Normally when you have a whole new frontrow on, you give it time – you have whole new combinations who want to prove a point and you let them settle in.”

Lions head coach Warren Gatland insisted that the first penalty should have gone in the Lions’ favour.

He said: “I look at those two penalties against Dan Cole, and I think the first one’s a penalty to us, the loosehead has gone down.

“There’s no doubt they've got some ascendancy in the second scrum penalty, but I thought the first one, we’d forced an error.”

Gatland said it had been a different story with French referees Pascal Gauzere and Mathieu Raynal in the Lions previous two matches.

“We’ve gone from single figure penalties to double figures again,” he added. “That’s eight or nine penalties in that last 10 or 12 minutes and that really hurt us.”