And the latest coach to eat sour grapes is....

[parkerd68]

Brendan Venter!

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugb ... 438123.stm

[Bill W (2)]

If Mr. Venter had watched all these videos why was he surprised when his team got penalised as its pack collapsed in the later stages of the game when under sustained pressure from Tigers?

He doth protest too much. Perhaps he should spend some time out of the changing room and away from the team on match days?

[AP]

Stop throwing your toys out of the pram Mr Venter
You lost get over it!

[Purebob]

Whinging saerf afrikans mate. They can never be beaten , they're always cheated of victory.

[POSTIGER]

Err...i'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that BV(!) is right when he criticises the standard of refereeing in the English game. It's so inconsistent as to be embarassing. The game hasn't been refereed properly for a few years now and as a result teams are cheating like there's no tomorrow. Referees are having to be selective when giving penalties as there are so many infringements taking place at each breakdown.

Having said that, his team lost today because they were steamrollered by our awesome pack - hurrah!

[norfolkexpat]

Thats twice this season our pack has slaughtered some South Africans !

[tigercaspian]

According to my maths 9 pens to 3 in the first half + 4 pens to 10 in the second half = 13 penalties each. I've checked it on the calculator too and it still comes out the same. Did Ventner not do maths at school or was I just lucky ?

No, I know what it is now.......he thinks the Premiership can be won without tries.......

[kingol22]

He is going to be annoyed unbeaten all season and then losing to irish and us. unless they change the way they play they could be left behind in the second half of the season. probably by us irish and saints

[Bill W (2)]

IMHO timing is all.

I agree with Venter's view that the standard of refereeing in the Premiership is poor. I have been saying it all season.

He chooses to say it after he loses two successive matches.

As th OP says - sour grapes - or at the very least the appearance and taste of sour grapes.

[Sue Donim]

Is it just me or is Mr Ventor suggesting that someone in the Tigers camp in some way influenced the ref at halftime?

I agree with Bill2's post about timing; no matter how valid Ventor's comments may or may not be, to come out and say them on the back of consecutive defeats will always sound like sour grapes and will somewhat dilute his point as a result.

[TTRITH]

I'm sorry, but I was sitting next to a Saracens fan that follows rugby relgiously and knows the rulebook better then most refs. According to him, Dave Rose had a shocker, both ways, no influence just decided to support two different sides two different halves.

Everytime I see Dave Rose he's getting worse. Too many rules now are down to referees interpretation, and it doesn't work.

Oh and btw Mr Venter, I thought referees weren't allowed to use previous reputation in a match, I thought it was a clean slate?

[AndyF]

I think we are missing the main issue here he is saying that the Tigers cheated by talking to Mr Rose into changing the way he ref'd the game. Thats a bit rude really when you think how dominant the pack were and how much better we were in the second half.

[chris whelan]

Don't you just love a sore Saffie loser!
God, I've lost count of the number of comments how ref's 'cheated' us over the past four or five years - good to see for once the shoe's on the other foot!

[Simmo]

My question is "How long will Brendan Venter's ban be?"

He is quietly stating that letters are changing hands in the background and possibly the Ref (David Rose) was "influenced" at half time but the bottom line is he is publically critisising RFU Referees!

Hasn't our Director of Rugby just come off a ban for a similar misdemeanour?

[EssexTiger]

Brings back delicious memories of the 'Almighty Gob' Andrew at Falcons. Never lost to us without complaining about team cheating, management cheating, stewards cheating et al!

Seem to remember we had a try bonus point before half time and we were still cheating!

Happy New Year!