Staunton blames ref

ULSTER BANK LEAGUE DIVISION 1A:

Out-half Cathal Marsh was in flawless form as his seven successful kicks helped overturn a 12-9 half-time deficit to give St Mary’s their first win in four.

“There were a lot of controversial refereeing decisions,” Staunton said. “There should have been at least two penalty tries in the first-half but that’s water under the bridge. Give St Mary’s credit, they played like a Young Munster side in the second-half. We started at 100 miles an hour. We were conscious of our away form and knew we’d have to put in a big shift today. We were over the line twice except for the referee binning two fellas and not giving a penalty try. From that point of view it is frustrating but we should have been another 10 or 15 points minimum up at half-time and we could have had the job done. But we were trying to score off two phases instead of being patient. We created lots of chances but didn’t execute them.”