Coaches are bemused by yellow peril

RICHARD COCKERILL and Dave Rennie were both left perplexed by the performance of referee Ben Blain during last night’s 1872 Cup clash at Scotstoun.

Blain dished out five yellow cards in total — three of which were to Edinburgh players — in what was actually quite a tame derby.

The visitors had Stuart McInally, Bill Mata and Nic Groom sent to the sin bin, with the latter of the three coming just seconds before Glasgow’s match-winning try in the closing stages.

The case of McInally, in particular, seemed harsh after inadvertently colliding with the head of Fraser Brown, who was effectively falling into the contact after being tackled.

And Edinburgh head coach Cockerill may well have cause for grievance if he chooses to escalate the issue.

Of an inexperienced referee who was taking charge of just his sixth Pro14 game, he said: ‘It was one of the nicest games physically I’ve been involved in around derby games.

‘I’m not sure what Bill Mata went to the bin for — we were winning the penalty count quite comfortably at that point, but he seemed to go to the bin very quickly.

‘Stu McInally’s was probably a penalty only — it’s a rugby incident all day long.

‘You want to look after player safety but I’m not sure what Stu’s meant to do there apart from not get involved.

‘So it’s a tough one. And I’m not sure what happened with Nic Groom.

‘It was a fiercely contested game. It could have gone either way and they’ve probably done just enough to edge the game.

‘It was a very tight, niggly game, it could have gone either way. I’m going to have to watch it again to see all the detail of what went on.

‘A lot of yellow cards, lot of penalties, and we got the wrong end of the yellow-card count, so it was frustrating.’

After yellow cards to Ruaridh Jackson and George Turner, Rennie was left similarly perplexed by the rookie referee.

Although his side were victorious in the end, Rennie said: ‘I don’t think five yellows are a reflection of the game.

‘I don’t know how Jacko got a yellow card for jumping in the air, but I guess that’s the way they saw it.

‘There was obviously the odd shoulder to the head and a couple of cynical things in the ref’s opinion.

‘We showed a lot of character and defended outstandingly well. We turned over a lot of pill from counter-ruck and it was pleasing to get the result in the end.’