Ex-Leinster boss slams referee as Dan Cole ends Leicester career in sin-bin
Leicester Tigers' boss, Michael Cheika, has expressed his disappointment over Dan Cole's yellow card in the Premiership final, calling it "an embarrassment to the game". The match saw Bath narrowly win at Twickenham.
The Midlands team were hoping to end their era on a high note. Head coach Cheika is set to leave, while club legends Cole and Ben Youngs played their last games after successful stints with the Welford Road team.
Both players came off the bench, but Cole was shown a yellow card and sent to the sin bin for the final 10 minutes, ending his career on a sour note. He tried to block Finn Russell but ended up making contact with the Bath fly-half, leading to a penalty by referee Karl Dickson.
Cheika bemoaned the performance of the referee, claiming they "got nothing back" despite their perceived dominance a scrum time. the Leicester boss was also stunned that Cole received his yellow and stated that rugby will be embarrassed by such decisions.
The Australian told TNT Sports: "I thought we got nothing back from the referee at all and we kept on coming back and turning up. We scored three tries to two, that tells you something. I'm super proud of the players.
"[I was] just upset with the decisions on the field. The scrum we were dominating – obvious ones, not 50-50s. The scrum we were dominating completely. A couple of head knocks, a couple of balls where we could have got penalties there easily. [We had] two men in the bin, [and] the second one [was] for nothing, really. It is embarrassing for the game that a player goes off for that. I'm allowed to be angry, but I got over it and am happy to accept the result now and get on with the next thing."
Pressed further on the yellow card incident he said: "For me personally, if the game is sending players to the sin bin for that, or even penalising [them]...What do I say, mate? If I say something, I'll get myself in strife and take away from the champion team who have led the competition and deserve to win the competition."
Cole had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, running on to a heart-warming reception, and had looked to charge down the Bath 10. His yellow meant that the Tigers were up against it to mount a comeback, even if they kept scoring points with a man less.
Leicester came up with two late tries to set-up a grandstand finish, but ultimately came up short as Bath won their first Premiership title for nearly 30 years. Thomas Du Toit and Max Ojomoh came up with their tries as Youngs and Cole missed out on a champion farewell.
"It hurts, but I'm proud," Youngs told BBC Radio Leicester. "My emotions are all over the place right now. You have so much ambition to win today and you don't, and you have that to deal with as you try to take it in. It's a funny old feeling."
Meanwhile Bath skipp Ben Spencer said: "The future of this club is unbelievably bright, no matter who pulls on the shirt it's next man in. The work ethic is second to none. As long as we keep our feet on the floor and keep on wanting to get better, the sky is the limit for this team."
He added: "The amount of hard work this has taken to turn the ship around... we were bottom three years ago. I can't credit [Johnan Van Graan] enough, he's been absolutely brilliant. If we [understand] there's always an opportunity to get better then I'm really excited for the next couple of years."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Daily Mirror
12 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
Andy Farrell hints at a record number of Ireland players for Force on Saturday.
Andy Farrell has hinted that he is ready to roll out the Leinster contingent for the opening game on Australian soil. And the prediction is there could be as many as eight Ireland players in the side - with the 2025 'gag' being rolled out - the scoreboard will show Ireland and British Lions! Essentially the focus for Force will turn to those who were unavailable last weekend and who arrived 'late' to camp following club duties. These include the dozen-strong Leinster contingent albeit Ronan Kelleher and Tadhg Furlong got a run from the bench - and did reasonably well - against Argentina while Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan are still being tasked with light work Andy Farrell of the injuries holding Keenan and Gibson-Park back: 'We'll see how they pull up in midweek. Huw Jones is good, he's been training. He trained fully with us last week so he's up and running. 'We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way.'We'll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we'll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that's all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next.'It's great to be here, this is what it's all about. We're here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on further indicated Bath's out-half Finn Russell and loosehead Will Stuart will come into immediate contention following their Premiership Final win over Leicester Tigers whose secondrow Ollie Chessum has also linked up with the makes for 37 of the 38 players in situ in Perth, the odd man out being Scotland star Blair Kinghorn who, based at Toulouse, is still 10 days or so away from joining the party. Toulouse beat Bayonne 32-25 last weekend to earn a place in the Top 14 final against Bordeaux next Saturday (8.05pm local).Russell, Stuart and Chessum are expected to be named to start against Force while Garry Ringrose, James Lowe, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan and either James Ryan or Joe McCarthy are expected to be involved in the Smith is a front-runner to remain at full-back. Wales Tomos Williams is the likely have their own problems to contend with following underperforming at Super Rugby level, finishing ninth of the 11 was despite being placed half-way at the half-way mark albeit operating out of the easier side of the initial draw. Their wins came at home to Fijian Drua, Moana Pasifika, Highlanders and away at Brumbies while there was a home draw with by Waratahs on the last day of the season saw Force fail to climb above the 'Tahs to Simon Cron, who will also coach the Aus/NZ XV scheduled to take on the Lions at the Adelaide Oval on July 12th (the fifth game in-country) and directly ahead of the First Test, has been feeling the heat."A number of guys in our team have given their heart and soul this year," said Cron after the Waratahs defeat."We have got to look at how we can add people around them to keep driving us forward and how we can push forward the ones that are still learning to get more consistent performances."The core group staying together is important for the club. A big area of growth for us is our rugby brains in key moments. We sometimes make it a bit hard for ourselves but that's where they've got to keep learning."Indeed there was some thinly disguised relief when Joe Schmidt, having put nine Force players in his initial squad for the Lions series, agreed to release five of them back to the club for the Lions comprise veteran scrum-half Nic White, back-row Nick Champion De Crespigny, secondrow Dylan Swain, prop Tom Robertson and winger Dylan Ben Donaldson, full-back/winger Harry Potter, back-row Carlo Tizzano, secondrow and Force captain Jeremy Williams were retained by Schmidt.
Irish Examiner
15 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan carry injuries as Lions land in Australia
The British and Irish Lions touched down in Australia with head coach Andy Farrell revealing there are lingering injury concerns over Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan. Farrell's squad arrived into Perth after a 20-hour journey from Dublin via Doha ahead of Saturday's opening fixture on Australian soil against the Western Force. There is doubt over whether Ireland duo Gibson-Park and Keenan will be able to take part at Optus Stadium because of respective glute and calf problems, but Scotland centre Huw Jones has recovered from an Achilles issue and is available. Settling in for the long haul ✈️🇦🇺#Lions2025 — British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) June 22, 2025 'We'll see how they pull up in midweek,' Farrell said of Gibson-Park and Keenan. 'Huw Jones is good, he's been training. He trained fully with us last week so he's up and running.' Farrell confirmed that the team against Western Force will mostly be made up of players from Leinster, Bath and Leicester, who joined up with the Lions after last Saturday's United Rugby Championship and Gallagher Premiership finals. There were no fresh injuries arising from Friday's 28-24 defeat by Argentina at the Aviva Stadium, with Farrell keen not to dwell on the disappointing tour send-off. Andy Farrell says the Lions will learn from their defeat to Argentina (Niall Carson/PA) 'We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way,' he said. 'We'll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we'll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that's all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next. 'It's great to be here, this is what it's all about. We're here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on Saturday.'
RTÉ News
15 hours ago
- RTÉ News
Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan carry knocks Down Under
The British and Irish Lions touched down in Australia with head coach Andy Farrell revealing there are lingering injury concerns over Jamison Gibson-Park and Hugo Keenan. Farrell's squad arrived into Perth after a 20-hour journey from Dublin via Doha ahead of Saturday's opening fixture on Australian soil against the Western Force. There is doubt over whether Ireland duo Gibson-Park and Keenan will be able to take part at Optus Stadium because of respective glute and calf problems, but Scotland centre Huw Jones has recovered from an Achilles issue and is available. "We'll see how they pull up in midweek," Farrell said of Gibson-Park and Keenan. "Huw Jones is good, he's been training. He trained fully with us last week so he's up and running." Farrell confirmed that the team against Western Force will mostly be made up of players from Leinster, Bath and Leicester, who joined up with the Lions after last Saturday's United Rugby Championship and Gallagher Premiership finals. There were no fresh injuries arising from Friday's 28-24 defeat by Argentina at the Aviva Stadium, with Farrell keen not to dwell on the disappointing tour send-off. "We're here to build for what's going to be a fantastic Test series. We want to play some good rugby along the way," he said. "We'll find out more about each other as we keep on going. Of course we'll analyse what went on against Argentina and why, but that's all part of the journey – to understand where we need to go next. "It's great to be here, this is what it's all about. We're here for a good time. Hopefully we can start this part of the tour off really well on Saturday."
