Cornish Pirates have lost an appeal regarding a perceived breach of rugby laws in November's British & Irish Cup match with Leinster.

The Pirates, who lost the tie 12-10, felt the match had unfairly gone to uncontested scrums.

But the organising committee of the British & Irish Cup ruled that Leinster and the match referee had complied with the regulations.

The committee also said they will amend the law to ensure greater clarity.

The controversy arose when Leinster hooker Jason Harris was yellow carded in the second half, at which point the scrums became uncontested.

Both Leinster and the referee complied with the laws of the game Terry Burwell, British & Irish Cup director

The Pirates appealed over the fact that Leinster still had prop Stewart Maguire on the bench.

Maguire subsequently entered the action 10 minutes later, at the same time as Harris returned from the sin bin, and the scrums subsequently returned to being contested.

The British & Irish Cup's organising committee ruled that the referee was right to decide to move to uncontested scrums during the period that Harris was in the sin-bin, as Leinster did not have a suitable replacement hooker on the bench.

Cup director Terry Burwell said: "We regret any inconvenience caused by the wording of the tournament regulations and thank Cornish Pirates for highlighting the case.

"Both Leinster and the referee complied with the laws of the game, but we recognise that the tournament regulations allowed for confusion in this matter and they will be re-drafted to eliminate any in the future."

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