Leinster coach insists ‘we got penalised too much’
The Aussie insisted his side had never conceded so many penalties since he arrived at the beginning of last season and was especially unhappy at having Keith Gleeson sin binned after five minutes, followed quickly by the awarding of a penalty try to Munster.
“We got penalised every time we had a chance to get out of our half in the second-half,” he declared.
“Even the linesman came in and reported one of our players and we got penalised again. We got penalised too much. Twenty penalties or something like that against a team with nearly the world’s best kicker. It’s not easy when that’s happening.
“It remains to be seen whether we got a bit of unfair treatment. I need to look at the video. I’d like to see what the story is and see what the transgressions were for.
“I thought the penalty try was harsh. I think refs have to learn more about what is going on with the scrummage. Everybody has to take a bit more time to know exactly what is going on. I’m not saying he was wrong but refs have to understand the degree of technique that’s happening in those scrums to make sure they’re giving penalties for the right reasons.
“Especially penalty tries, I think they were going to push us over anyway. I thought it was a bit too early to give it to be honest. I don’t think we did anything totally illegal to prevent a try.”
As for the game itself, the Aussie felt “it was a tight affair and not a classic. We’ve had a few tough away games of late, against Agen, Ulster and now today and we’re learning from those all the time. We came to win but we’re disappointed with the second-half.”
Cheika reported that Felipe Contepomi, who came in for the last 13 minutes, suffered no repercussions but admitted that “the injury to Girvan Dempsey’s ankle is significant”.
Leinster will now try to regroup in the build-up to Sunday’s “Last Stand” in front of almost 48,000 people against Ulster at Lansdowne Road.
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