Brendan Venter set to be banned and fined for referee rant

Brendan Venter is likely to be exiled to the stands and fined heavily if charged by the Rugby Football Union for his outburst about refereeing in the Premiership.

The Saracens director of rugby criticised David Rose's handling of his side's 22-15 defeat by Leicester on Saturday to highlight a wider concern of the way officials are refereeing the breakdown.

Venter angered the RFU by stating that referee Rose had changed tack at half-time. "There was one referee in the first half and he came out another referee," he said. "There is a problem and that is the game is determined by referees, not by teams. Everybody wants to know why the game is dying - maybe that is why."

He also revealed he received an apology from referee's chief Ed Morrison for David Richards's handling of last week's 23-19 loss against London Irish.

Venter is now likely to face a charge of bringing the game into disrepute.

Rob Andrew, elite rugby director at the RFU, said: "The RFU believe Mr Venter's comments to be unfounded. We have one of the most advanced elite refereeing development programmes in world rugby and a number of our referees are on international panels at all levels."

However, Venter is not the only director of rugby unhappy with the standard of refereeing.

After his London Wasps side were beaten 12-6 at home against Newcastle yesterday, Tony Hanks said: "Week-in, week-out, the breakdown seems to be different. We need clear interpretation in terms of who's allowed to play the ball."