Kingsley Jones questioned a debatable decision by referee Rob Debney as he tasted defeat on his return to Worcester.
Sharks boss upset at referee for not allowing try in Worcester defeat
Sale director of rugby Kingsley Jones questioned a debatable decision by referee Rob Debney as he tasted defeat on his return to Worcester.
Jones was frustrated by his side's own poor decision making, but also insisted the refree made a blunder as the Sharks went down 24-18.
Worcester survived Sale's late onslaught but Jones, who had a brief spell as captain at Sixways, felt Debney denied Oriol Ripol a late try when he blew for a Sale penalty when the Spanish winger appeared well positioned to score a try.
"It was heart-breaking," Jones said. "Rico Gear was pulling David Tait back at the time so I don't know whether he would have got the try, but he didn't play advantage.
"He brought us back for a penalty instead of a try in the corner. There was no knock-on or anything.
"But you can't lose sleep over those things. You can only lose sleep over the controllable and there are lots of things we need to improve on."
Let downs
Jones admitted that "two or three" players let Sale down and poor game management allowed Worcester to dig in for a second home win of the season.
"Our game management at crucial times was not good," Jones admitted. "To come away from home and concede a try early on, a soft try, and then to concede early in the second half was poor.
"We did it last week when we switched off at crucial stages of the game. If you do that you can't catch up.
"It's hard to go in the changing room and go too mad on the commitment and effort again.
"But you can't play naively and I thought two or three individuals didn't perform particularly well and put us in difficult positions at crucial times."
Ruddock praise
Worcester's Mike Ruddock praised his side's brave defensive display.
"There are a lot of battered players in the changing room," Ruddock said. "We had to make 143 tackles at Wasps last week and I guess we probably matched that today.
"I would love to win without having to encompass that workload in defence, but if that's what it takes then that's what we will do.
"What I might have to do in the next two games is to share the load a little bit because to keep asking the same players to go out and keep delivering that commitment is going to be difficult.
"The main goal today was to win at home and build a fortress here and make it difficult for teams to come here and win."
