Falcons consider referee complaint
Newcastle Falcons are pondering the possibility of a complaint against the referee’s performance in the match between Newcastle Falcons and Sale Sharks in Newcastle on Friday evening.
It was a vital match for both sides, locked as they are in a battle to avoid relegation and the match ended in a draw 10-all after a controversial try had given the visitors a 16-9 lead.
Newcastle are considering making a formal complaint over referee Tim Wigglesworth’s handling of the match.
Falcons chairman and owner Dave Thompson was furious with Wigglesworth’s decision to allow a controversial second-half try by Sale No.8 Sisa Koyamaibole which put Sale 16-9 ahead. Television replays appeared to show Sale hooker Marc Jones knocking on as he was tackled immediately before Koyamaibole scored.
Thompson said: “It was a disgraceful decision. There was a blatant knock-on and I’m considering making a formal complaint.”
It was just one of several decisions by Wigglesworth which infuriated the Falcons, and director of rugby Alan Tait was bemused by the 25th-minute yellow card shown to Newcastle lock Tim Swinson and then James Gaskell escaping any punishment for clearly punching Falcons skipper James Hudson in full view of the assistant referee and the referee.
Hudson was penalised for holding on in the tackle after the officials discussed the matter and Gaskell was not even spoken to.
“I think I’d be holding on if I was being punched five times, which is what Gaskell was doing,” said Tait. “I thought punching was supposed be a yellow card but we don’t seem to have any consistency with decisions.”
Indicating foul play is one of the assistant referee’s duties.
Koyamaibole may have escaped the view of the referee and his assistants but not of the citing commissioner for Koyamaibole has been cited for kicking Richard Wigglesworth of Saracens in their match with Sale the week before.
The knock-on miss was unusual in the context of the game ,because before that a knock-on was blown when the ball, played by a Falcon, clearly went backwards and then a knock-on was blown when the ball struck the thigh of Charlie Amesbury and bounced forward. It would, to be fair, have needed a confident referee not to blow that one.
The club are entitled to comment. The governing body may well consider the comment and even agree with it. But the result stays.
