Fuming Maynard says ref ‘lost plot’
By Brian Dick , Coventry Telegraph
October 5 2009
AGGRIEVED rugby director Phil Maynard has questioned the appointment of referee Luke Pearce for last Friday’s devastating derby defeat by Moseley. The Coventry coach claims Pearce, a rising star in the RFU ranks, ‘lost the plot’ after watching the Devonian award the visitors three penalty tries and effectively hand them victory.
All three came from 5m scrums, the third eight minutes into injury time to give Moseley an incredible 28-25 win that lifted them to sixth in the table. But Maynard was not amused by the bizarre set of circumstances that he says should never have been allowed to arise.
“There was a key area on 36 minutes and 15 seconds where it is clearly identified that the referee lost the plot and started to get things wrong from there on out,” Maynard said.
“He clearly did not understand the nuances of front row play. The dark areas of front row play are very difficult to marshall. On reviewing the DVD, he had an excellent game apart from that.
“There were a couple of things I thought I saw but it turned out he got them right.
“What I fail to see is how a 21-year-old who has never played the game is reffing a match like that.
“There are bigger issues here. Who appointed him and what experience has he got reffing at this level?
“The issue we have here is this young ref and the Rugby Football Union saying these games are not as important as they used to be. Tell that to 3,000 paying customers.
“If the young gentleman who refereed had been in our changing room before the match he would have heard Tony Gulliver and Dave Addleton talking about how far this fixture goes back and what it means to the city and people of Coventry.”
But Maynard knows his men should have been well clear with fly half George Crook missing three kicks at goal and his team failing to take advantage of the visitors’ defensive frailties out wide.
“We did not start to implement our gameplan until the mid-part of the game and that was our fault because we were too over the top emotionally at the beginning,” he said.
“Had it been any other night or any other game we would probably have won it.
“In the last two weeks we have had two sets of unprecedented circumstances, I think I am cursed and I’m not sure I want to find out what’s in store next week.”
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Match Report v Mounts Bay.
Wrecked.
Southends’ first visit to Cornwall’s Mounts Bay RFC ended on the rocks, they were lured there by the incessant sound of a whistle.
Despite scoring fifteen points in the first twenty minutes they were reduced to uncertainty and disappointment when Mounts Bay managed to amass thirty five points without once crossing the try line. Seven successful penalty kicks and two converted penalty tries accounted for their total. It was not until the eightieth minute with Southend in disarray that Mounts Bay managed to ground the ball somewhere near the line, a try was given to take their score to 40 points.
It had all started well with some good flowing rugby from Southend resulting in two tries from Adam Ferrier and a successful conversion and penalty from Simon Hoult, Mounts Bay were on the back foot with Southend pressing for more points. A couple of head injuries on the ground resulted in both Luke Sloan and Rhys Powell having to be replaced and then the penalties came thick and fast, at one stage nineteen were awarded against Southend in succession. The only yellow card however was to Mark Braidwood for kicking the ball away in frustration.
Either this experienced team of players and their coaches are completely ignoring the laws of the game or there are some serious misunderstandings by players, officials or both. Your scribe has not seen anything like it before.
Not withstanding the one sided penalty count on Saturday Southend need to manage the referees better, it is not the first time in recent games that they have been penalised heavily. Many of the teams we play seem to be much better at it than us. They have a fortnight before the next league game at home to Blaydon, let’s hope for an improvement.
woods, it's in the hipflask! (Steve Emms)
' COME ON COV '
not bad going for a sainsburys bakery boy, and thats public knowledge
woods, it's in the hipflask! (Steve Emms)
' COME ON COV '