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Richards facing possible sanction after ripping into officials in TV interview

Dean Richards /Getty

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards has accused Gallagher Premiership officials of favouritism following Falcons’ narrow loss to Exeter Chiefs at Kingston Park.

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Newcastle, who were reeling from the news today of the death of former coach Steve ‘Blackie’ Black, lost by a single point to Exeter Chiefs, who secured a 15 – 14 win with a late Joe Simmonds penalty.

In a post-match pitchside interview with Martin Bayfield, a relatively resigned Richards, said that a lot his players were questioning the decisions of the referee and his officials.

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We’re joined by England’s Luke Cowan-Dickie this week as the Six Nations squads take a break after two rounds of action. We hear from the Exeter Hooker about his journey with England and the Lions, his relationship with Eddie Jones and of course that volleyball moment in Edinburgh during the Calcutta Cup. Max and Ryan give their thoughts on the weekend battles in Cardiff, Paris and Rome, pick their team of the week and look forward to the rest of the tournament.

The former England backrow could now face an RFU disciplinary panel over his comments, in which he suggested the officials were either biased or didn’t know what they were doing.

“We didn’t get the rub of the green from the officials.

“The boys in the changing room are saying some of the decisions were questionable. Some are a little more vocal than that.

“Adam Brocklebank gets penalised in a scrum when their tighthead goes to the floor quite clearly. You just think, what the hell is going on here?”

“There’s obviously a bit of favouritism in some way, shape or form or they don’t know what they’re doing. The boys don’t know what’s happening from one week to the next.

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“The officiating sometimes is really disappointing.

Falcons were on the wrong side of the penalty count, but it was the red card for Callum Chick that really infuriated Richards.

“You look at the Callum Chick thing. Josh Hodge clearly drops his height, and it’s not by a couple of inches. It’s six or eight inches.

https://twitter.com/btsportrugby/status/1495423294513766407

“From that, it goes to a yellow card rather than a red card, if he drops his height. There was no looking at X, Y… ‘Was it clear? Well that’s what it is, then that’s the decision, red card, then off he goes’.

“In critical decisions like that you’ve got to get it right and they don’t. At this moment in time [Chick red card] they make a really quick decision and I think they’ve got it wrong.

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“We were just disappointed with officiating on the day. We will look at it very closely. You get penalised for going across on the lineout and it’s never straight. Make them throw in straight and it wouldn’t be a problem, would it.

“Just very, very disappointed,” concluded the 58-year-old.

He later doubled down on the comments on Newcastle Falcons’ website [and in the post match press conference], where he further bemoaned the speed at which crucial decisions are being made: “One of the issues we’re having at the moment is they’re trying to get to a really quick decision, rather than the correct decision. I would have accepted a yellow card, but you can’t make such a critical decision in such a big game as this, as quickly as they did. I thought it was really poor from them.

“You need to take the time to make the decision correctly, but they don’t want to spend time on TMO decisions. When you’re playing with people’s livelihoods and careers, you can’t do that, and they were barking up the wrong tree. They just haven’t got it right at the moment, and it’s all about the speed of the decision rather than getting it right.”

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Comments

3 Comments
M
Mark 983 days ago

DoR should be careful about what they say. The red card incident was as consistent as most of the red cards I have seen so you are not going to win that argument based on how the rules are being applied.

R
Rupert 987 days ago

I thought it was a very poor and hasty decision. Josh Hodge lurched forward as a natural reaction to dropping the ball and trying to recover it. This was not taken into consideration at all by Ridley who I think is the poorest referee in the Premiership at present. I agree with Dean Richards it was a yellow not a red due to mitigation. I'm a Saints fan by the way not Falcons but most of all a rugby fan!

a
andrew 988 days ago

They dont have the guts to even bother explaining themselves

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Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
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