Referees’ decisions costing us money says Warriors chief Little (From Worcester News)

Referees’ decisions costing us money says Warriors chief Little

9:00am Saturday 12th January 2013 in Sport By Tom Guest, @tomguestWN #WENsport

CHARLIE LITTLE: Says poor refereeing decisions have cost Warriors at least six points this season.

REFEREEING decisions could end up costing Worcester Warriors a six-figure sum this season, according to Sixways managing director Charlie Little.

Twice this term, Warriors have received apologies from referees chief Ed Morrison with regard to incorrect decisions that have gone against Richard Hill’s side.

Officials wrongly handed penalties to Bath and Gloucester on the last kick of the match which ended up costing Warriors six points, while JP Doyle’s award of a match-winning penalty try to Leicester last week was debatable to say the least.

The Aviva Premiership points that have gone begging because of these decisions is likely to result in Worcester missing out on the financial windfall that goes with playing in the top tier of European rugby.

Little said: “Refereeing decisions have cost us at least six points this season, which could be the difference between qualifying or not for the Heineken Cup, which is worth comfortably into six figures to the club.

“When Hilly said what he did after the Leicester game, I don’t think he was fully aware of exactly what had happened, especially the knock-on by Ben Youngs and how much the scrum had moved forward.

“There is often a little bit of a shove on, but not to be feeding the ball into the second row!”

Little added: “Over an 80-minute period you normally walk off the pitch happy to an extent that, although the referee might not have done a very good job, it has balanced out over the course of the match.

“However, if you make a decision in the 79th minute of the game that actually affects the result of the fixture, my view is that you have to be 100 per cent certain that decision is right. In our home game with Gloucester, JP Doyle made a decision he thought was correct, but was later proved not to be and the apology came.

“One would assume that he was again 100 per cent certain he had made the right decision at the end of our game with Leicester, yet clearly it should have been at least a reset scrum or even a free-kick or penalty to Worcester.

“If it was a reset scrum, Tigers may still have forced the penalty try, I don’t think we’re questioning that, but you just wonder why.”