Cockerill hits out at ref after defeat
EDINBURGH’S awayday blues continued last night as they lost to the lowly Dragons.
Richard Cockerill’s side have not won away from home this season and also missed out on a chance to leapfrog Ulster into the Guinness Pro14 play-off places.
A brace of tries from Jared Rosser, plus eight points from former Edinburgh outside-half Jason Tovey was enough to see the Welsh strugglers over the line.
Edinburgh scored two tries of their own courtesy of Dougie Fife and Darcy Graham, with Jaco van der Walt kicking two points.
The Scots dominated the hosts up front, putting the Dragons under a lot of pressure but were not able to turn that into points.
And Cockerill was again left frustrated at the officiating as the Dragons conceded five penalties in the space of eight minutes on their own try line without receiving a yellow card.
Ironically, Dragons head coach Bernard Jackman was banned from attending the game by the WRU after criticising Welsh referee Ian Davies.
‘I’ll look at some of the officiating and the penalties they gave away,’ said Cockerill. ‘We were camped on their line for ten minutes and they gave away multiple penalties yet received no yellow card.
‘When we did eventually cross the try line (through Chris Dean), it was a double movement after the referee had spent ten minutes looking at the screen, thinking: “Was it, wasn’t it? I tell you what, we’ll go against the attacking team”. That’s life.
‘We were camped on their line for what seemed like forever and the referee kept giving them warnings. It’s happened in every game that we’ve played and it never seems to get better.
‘I’ll send a report to Greg Garner (Pro14 elite referee manager) and I’ll get a report back. He will agree with me and we’ll just go to Cork and play again.
‘I sympathise with Bernard Jackman because referees make decisions which sway games. Everybody should be accountable — it’s as simple as that.
‘We made too many errors and created enough opportunities to win the game.’
The Dragons began the better of the two sides, with No8 Ollie Griffiths slicing open the Edinburgh defence before charging into the 22. Griffiths was eventually brought down but his run forced the visitors to infringe at the breakdown, allowing Tovey to open the scoring with a penalty.
Edinburgh started to gain the upper hand, with their hosts struggling to cope with their physicality and direct ball carriers.
But it was the Welsh side who grabbed the opening try when full-back Jordan Williams ran straight through two Edinburgh defenders before sucking in Fife to put Rosser over.
Edinburgh responded with Callum Hunter-Hill getting forward into the Dragons’ 22, forcing the home side to concede a penalty in front of the posts. But the visitors opted not to take the easy option of a kick at goal and instead turned to their scrum.
Loose-head prop Pierre Schoeman gave opposite number Lloyd Fairbrother a torrid time, forcing the Dragons man to concede three penalties in succession. And after a period of sustained pressure, inside-centre Dean hit an excellent angle off scrum-half Henry Pyrgos’ shoulder to crash over the line.
But after much deliberation between the officials the try was disallowed for double movement.
Edinburgh were awarded yet another penalty but this time they decided to go for the corner. After two powerful surges, Pyrgos shifted the ball wide to James Johnstone, who beat Tyler Morgan before putting Fife over.
Hickey missed the conversion meaning the visitors went in 10-5 behind at the interval.
Griffiths led the way after the break with a 30-metre surge into Edinburgh’s half to put them on the front foot. And with the visitors’ defence in disarray, scrum-half Rhodri Williams spun the ball wide for full-back Williams to put Rosser over for his second.
Van der Walt sparked Edinburgh back into life with a searing break and a gorgeous offload for Graham to cross the try line.
Edinburgh lay siege to the Dragons try line in the closing stages of the game but the home side’s defence refused to give in, with Griffiths eventually winning a turnover to seal the victory.