Cardiff Blues coach John Mulvihill 'sick' of poor Pro14 refereeing
- Published
Cardiff Blues have won four and lost six games in the Pro14 under John Mulvihill
Cardiff Blues head coach John Mulvihill has criticised Pro14 officiating after his side's 16-12 defeat against Ulster.
He says he will talk to Pro14 referees boss Greg Garner about the display of South African referee Stuart Berry and his fellow officials in Belfast.
But the Australian believes his observations will have little effect.
"We were not happy with the way the game was officiated and I am starting to get to a stage where I am sick of it," said Mulvihill.
"After the first three games I spoke to the referees boss and he has told me that if the game was officiated properly we would have won the first three games.
"Again after this game we will go through the normal channels. You send all your clips through to the referees boss and he will get back to you with the decision. And he will say 'yes you are right'.
"There are big stakes in rugby, people lose jobs and players lose their roles. It has to better than it is."
Cardiff Blues' Seb Davies was sin-binned for a late hit on Ross Kane
Mulvihill was unhappy with Blues and Wales lock Seb Davies being yellow-carded and two incidents involving Ulster centre Stuart McCloskey.
"The way the game was officiated towards the end of the game was not right," said Mulvihill. "If you have a referee, two officials and a TMO surely some of those breakdown decisions have to be better.
"Ulster are a good team - that's why we were behind at the end but we clawed our way back into it.
"Under the goalposts at the end there were three [Ulster] players off their feet, one in particular, but the referee calls holding on.
"We get a yellow card for someone clearing someone out and it was not a shoulder charge, he wrapped his arms.
"Their 12 [McCloskey] was allowed to come in during a push and shove, grab our nine [Lloyd Williams] and initiate his head which is a head-butt and a red card.
"When Tomos Williams made a break the ball was knocked out of his hand, Jason Harries was going for the ball and he was tackled five metres from their line without the ball by McCloskey. No penalty try, no TMO, just a scrum.
"I was pleased with our performance and proud of our boys. Not a lot of teams come here and score two tries to one," he added.
