Sarries boss vents ref anger

Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter launched a blistering attack on referee David Rose after his side's 22-15 defeat by Leicester.

In an extraordinary post-match diatribe, Venter raged at Rose's second-half performance and seemed to imply the referee had been influenced during the interval. Venter went on to castigate the general standard of officials in the Guinness Premiership, effectively accusing them of lacking the same professional standards as players and coaches.

Venter said: "The penalty count in the first half was 9-3 to Sarries. The penalty count in the second half was 10-4 to Leicester. I didn't say to my team: 'Look boys, we are leading, let's cheat more.' We asked the referee to keep everything the same in the second half. For some reason, something happened to this poor referee and there was basically a 12-count penalty swing."

He added: "There was one referee in the first half, he walked through a maze or something, and he came out another referee.

"I want to look at the opposition, shake his hand and say, 'you out-thought us, you out-played us, you out-muscled us, well done'. That is not what I can do.

"This is a professional game and this is a problem. I don't think referees are dishonest, we just do not have the ability to stay objective."

Venter seems certain to find himself in hot water with the authorities but he claims the Rugby Football Union are already well aware of his concerns about the standard of officiating.

During the week, Venter received an apology from RFU referees chief Ed Morrison for the performance of Dean Richards in last weekend's defeat at London Irish.

Venter questioned why referees do not prepare for matches with the same forensic analysis as the coaches and players.

And he claimed the "random" nature of decisions from referees is to blame for the dirth of attacking rugby in the Premiership this season.