Ref robbed us say Wasps
WASPS boss Dai Young blasted referee JP Doyle after his side’s 19-16 defeat at Leicester.
“Why did we lose, the man in the middle,” said Young. “I feel robbed.”
Leicester had three tries ruled out while a controversial score by Tigers fly-half Joe Ford was allowed to stand. The RFU will no doubt be speaking to Young.
DAI YOUNG, the Wasps director of rugby, was bitterly critical of officiating which saw his side on the wrong end of three try-scoring decisions.
And his sense of injustice was compounded by Leicester being awarded a match-turning Joe Ford try, despite the Tigers fly-half appearing to lose control of the ball.
Young’s disappointment was made complete, when, having laid siege to the Leicester line for the last ten minutes, replacement prop Biyi Alo forced his way over, only for the TMO to rule out a try.
The balance of probabilities was in favour of an Ayo touchdown, but it was not given because there was no clear footage of the ball being grounded.
Leicester were in desperate need of a morale boost with just two Premiership wins in their last eight. However, they looked to be in trouble after losing both their scrum-halves, Ben White and Sam Harrison, with injuries before halftime – Harrison after a shin to the head by Joe Simpson, his opposite number.
Simpson rightly escaped censure because the contact looked accidental – while Leicester, despite having to move Jonah Holmes from wing to scrum-half in the secondhalf and put flanker Will Evans on the wing, deserve credit for they way they adapted and scrapped.
Wasps handicapped themselves through dire indiscipline. They lost the penalty count by the swingeing margin of 15-6, and also lost hooker Tommy Taylor to a ‘team’ sin-bin for persistent breakdown infringements just after half-time.
Wasps had played most of the enterprising rugby before the break, and two Marcus Watson tries had given them a 14-9 lead at the interval.
Watson’s first was a runin after he was put clear by Rob Miller and Willie Le Roux, but his second was a scorcher. After taking Le Roux’s pass on his 10m line, the Wasps winger jinked outside Kyle Eastmond and sliced through to the Leicester 22 – where Holmes made the mistake of showing him the outside. He was left in the blocks by Watson’s outside break as he finished a great solo try in the corner.
Miller converted both tries from the touchline, but he was not alone in having his kicking boots on with Ford keeping Leicester in touch with three penalties.
With Wasps soon down to 14 men it was not long before Ford was the beneficiary of a desperate refereeing decision by JP Doyle, and TMO Sean Davey. They ruled that the Leicester 10 had scored despite persuasive replay evidence that he lost control of the ball as he tried to ground it one-handed.
Soon after Ford, who scored all Leicester’s points, converted for a 16-14 lead, Wasps thought they had regained the lead when prop Ben Harris drilled over, but another TMO referral saw it disallowed for a marginal knock-on.
When Ford kicked another penalty to put Leicester five points ahead with 14 minutes left, Wasps went into overdrive. However, when Le Roux put Juan De Jongh clear, to be called back for a forward pass, they could have been forgiven for thinking that none of the margins were in their favour.
Alo’s disallowed try will only have confirmed Wasps in that conviction.