FRUSTRATED Nigel Davies believes Gloucester would have merited a penalty try to steal victory at Saracens yesterday.
The Cherry and Whites rugby director lamented a host of 'controversial' refereeing decisions that he felt stunted any flow to the game – and could have cost his side a win at Vicarage Road.
Gloucester outscored Saracens two tries to one, but seven Charlie Hodgson penalties helped the hosts home 28-23.
The Kingsholm men launched all-out assault on the Saracens line at the death – but despite four penalties – two from lineouts and two from scrums – were unable to steal the result.
Ruing several calls during the contest, Davies refused to point fingers or criticise, but warned only consistency from officials will allow clubs across the Premiership to produce entertaining rugby.
Dan Murphy and Sione Kalamafoni were both sin-binned in a fractious and gritty contest, while Richard Wigglesworth was yellow-carded with two minutes remaining for Saracens.
Admitting consternation over several calls, Davies explained: "A penalty try could certainly have been awarded, on either the first or the second scrum, but those are the calls that sometimes go for you, and sometimes go against you.
"It's very difficult from a coaching perspective to plan your approach if there isn't consistency.
"I thought it was a very controversial game, hugely frustrating from our point of view.
"Saracens put a lot of pressure on us and we didn't always deal with that well.
"But my frustration lies around some of the interpretation of the contact area, and we just couldn't get a game going – either side.
"We need some continuity in that area, because if that's the way it's going to be refereed then we're not going to have much of a spectacle."
Running the rule over the sin-binnings, Davies added: "There were similar offences on the other side that weren't deal with the same way, but there you go.
"I was physically gutted with the fact we were ruining the spectacle as far as the game overall was concerned.
"For some reason the contact area was refereed less in the second half and we were able to play a bit more, both sides.
"But it's not about questioning officials, it's about making sure we can all have the same situations moving forward."
