Dean Ryan was critical of the officials after Gloucester's late 14-9 defeat at Harlequins on Saturday.
Different views from the Deans after a cracker at the Stoop
Dean Ryan was critical of the officials after Gloucester's late 14-9 defeat at Harlequins on Saturday.
A losing bonus point took the Cherry and Whites back to the top of the Guinness Premiership table, but it had looked likely to be four after Olly Barkley cancelled out Nick Evans' converted try with his third penalty in the 47th minute.
Instead, Tom Williams' try four minutes from time kept up the Londoners' fine record at home and Ryan clearly felt aggrieved.
"I thought we'd done enough to get a result there. I'm disappointed with some of the decisions that kept us in there," he told
Sky Sports 2.
"There are a number of things which we could have done that wouldn't have kept us in there. Then when it gets to the fine line there are other bodies responsible for getting that right as well.
"I'd like to see on the monitor, but they certainly compounded some of the things we weren't doing correctly and that put us in the firing line time and time again.
"I don't think we're playing well, but I think we're pretty solid and we're pretty together at the moment and getting some good results.
"The Six Nations period is traditionally a very difficult time for us, but we're getting stronger. We've got a bonus point, which is key but if we want to really get better from week to week we've got to challenge ourselves to understand why we keep putting ourselves back in there and then when it replicates itself in another game we'll be wiser for it."
Positives
Dean Richards' side has been in miserly form, losing just once at home all season, and their director of rugby was pleased with what he saw.
"I thought our scrum held up really well although you've got to question some of the things that happened after Olivier Azam came on. Obviously it became disjointed because he doesn't scrummage legally," Richards said.
"I thought on the whole we played well. We got two tries to nil. It's defence we're building on and it's a key point of our game, but we like to score tries as well.
"We didn't score as many as we wanted last week. We probably wanted to score a few more this week, but we missed opportunities and there were also a number of decisions that the referee or touch judges didn't quite get right, but you've got to accept that.
"I think we've got a great squad the team spirit in the squad showed out there today."
Harlequins, already through to the Heineken Cup quarter-finals, stay fifth in the table as a result, but the leading quartet remain very much in range.
