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Dai Young: 'We were robbed'
Wasps director of rugby Dai Young was left fuming by some of the refereeing decisions that went against his side in their 19-14 defeat at Leicester, claiming “we were robbed.”
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Young felt Wasps should have been celebrating victory at Welford Road, but instead found himself bemoaning several incidents that he believes cost them dearly.
One of those was when Leicester’s Joe Ford, who scored all of his side’s points, went over for a second-half try which was questionably grounded but not reviewed by the officials.
Young also believes that other instances where Wasps had tries disallowed should have been inspected, convinced they would have added to the two stunning first-half efforts from wing Marcus Watson and earned the visitors victory.
The Wasps boss said: “There were some real big moments that swung against us. There were three disallowed tries and you don’t come to Welford Road, get three disallowed tries and win the game.
“That is a game we should have won. We were not happy with the grounding (for Ford’s try) and it was no different to the knock-on he gave against Ben Harris in the pick-and-go situation.”
Wasps battered the Leicester defence in the final quarter of the game as they chased the win, but the Tigers would not let them through until a close-range ruck saw replacement prop Biyi Alo go over.
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However, television match official Sean Davey looked at the score, could not see if Alo had put the ball over the line, and so it was ruled out.
You NEVER give Marcus Watson this amount of room ??
Punished. pic.twitter.com/PLFy4bIjDt
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) March 2, 2019
“The break through the middle was never a forward pass and he (Alo) was clearly over at the end. He was at least three yards over the line,” Young added.
“To a man I was pleased today but three disallowed tries are hard to swallow. I cannot feel anything but that we were robbed, to be honest.”
There was also a blow to Wales as Wasps’ international flanker Thomas Young, the director of rugby’s son, came off after just four minutes with a hip injury.
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The Wasps boss is not sure whether his son will be ruled out of the remainder of the Six Nations, where Grand Slam-chasing Wales have two games left, but admits it is “touch and go” for next weekend’s trip to Scotland.
“I don’t know,” said the director of rugby when asked if the former Cardiff and Gloucester forward is is out of the tournament.
“It will certainly be touch and go whether he is fit for next weekend but only time will tell.”
In stark contrast to Young, Leicester head coach Geordan Murphy was delighted with his side’s win, especially after losing both scrum-halves, Ben White and Sam Harrison, as well as centre Gareth Owen in the opening 40 minutes.
He said: “I am really proud of the lads’ performance.
“You don’t expect to lose both number nines before half-time as well as your 13. We were on the ropes a little bit and I said to the guys, there are a lot of reasons to not front up in the second half and let the game slip away from you.
“But if we work hard for each other, we will put Wasps under pressure.
“It was really difficult to get out of our half in the second half but it was fitting at the end of the game they are holding up a body (Alo) who was desperate to score.”
