Dean Richards felt decisions made by referee David Rose cost Harlequins dear against Gloucester.
Quins coach Richards unhappy with second-half penalty count
Harlequins coach Dean Richards has said he felt decisions made in the second half by referee David Rose cost his side dear in their Guinness Premiership clash with Gloucester at Kingsholm.
The hosts had found themselves 25-13 down at half time but 14 unanswered points in the second half saw Gloucester come back into the reckoning and edge a 27-25 victory.
Quins' hopes were hardly helped by trips made to the sin-bin in the second half by both scrum-half Andy Gomarsall and prop Ceri Jones.
In contrast, Gloucester only conceded only one penalty in the same period - with Richards left fuming at the justice meted out by Rose.
"We got one penalty in the second half from a punch which was picked up by the touch judge," he said. "I don't know any side these days who can go through a half without giving a penalty away. It's incredible.
"I cannot understand it but who am I to question the referee. They're always right."
Richards' side nevertheless made a flying start, with four tries inside 33 minutes from Simon Keogh (2), Ugo Monye and Chris Malone allowing Harlequins to score the first of their two bonus points in the first half.
However, Malone missed three conversions and his profligacy was to prove costly when Gloucester struck back in the second half thanks to tries from Mike Tindall and Lesley Vainikolo.
In contrast to his counterpart, Chris Paterson kicked all three conversions and two penalties for Gloucester - Malone also proving off target with a late drop-goal.
"We always knew they had the ability to come back but it is difficult to take," Richards continued.
"But there aren't many sides who get a bonus point in the first half at Kingsholm and we did pretty well getting that.
"Games like that are what it's all about. It was a fantastic atmosphere and you either grow in stature or you drift off. All of my boys came through with flying colours."
Ryan: We came back superbly
Meanwhile, Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan said he was pleased with the way the Premiership leaders responded to the gauntlet thrown down by their opponents.
"It was very alarming," he said. "But I strongly believe it was down to the simple things.
"With some of the changes we'd made, we were so focused on getting bits and pieces right that we'd lost intensity and we talked about taking it back to as simple as we could get it and see what comes off the back of it.
"We were calm at half-time and I thought we got back into the game superbly. We solved the problem as soon as we came out when we prioritised what we wanted to think about."
