Rugby: Richards has grounds to be sceptical

Leicester Tigers director of rugby Dean Richards has questioned the decision to stage the Heineken Cup final at Parc des Princes in Paris.

The European final is supposed to be staged at a neutral ground but with Paris-based Stade Francais defeating Munster 16-15 in controversial fashion on Saturday, the venue is more like a home tie for the French champions.

Stade Francais’ home ground is 50 yards from the Parc des Princes and Richards admits: ‘‘Fifty yards probably isn’t neutral. It’s rather a strange venue you’ve got to admit. But the decision’s been made so we have to accept it.’’

Marseille had been touted as a destination for the European club competition’s finale and the Tigers boss said: ‘‘I think there were quite a few question marks as to where it was going to be anyway. I don’t think anybody really knew what the decisions were.

‘‘Initially, until about a week-and-a-half ago, it was supposed to be down in Marseille and I don’t know exactly when the switch came.

‘‘But it’s a strange place to have it, at the Parc des Princes.’’

The former England back-row giant does not however deny that the Parc des Princes is worthy of hosting a European cup final.

‘‘We as a club have never played there but for England I played there on a number of occasions and it’s great venue,’’ said Richards.

‘‘We have to accept it, the decision’s been made and we are not going to harp on about it. We will just have to prepare for it.’’

Leicester, beaten finalists in 1997, will have to vastly improve on a performance that saw them scrape home against a resilient injury-hit Gloucester side if they are going to defeat Stade Francais.

Despite ongoing troubles both on and off the field the Cherry and Whites pushed the Tigers right to the whistle as the English champions hung on for a 19-15 win.

Gloucester coach Philippe Saint-Andre said: ‘‘We are very disappointed but we showed that Gloucester are a good team. We managed to cause a lot of problems for Leicester.

‘‘Our defence was good, and I am proud of how the players performed. I am sure that the supporters will be as well.’’

Man of the match, Leicester wing Tim Stimpson, who kicked four penalties and converted the Leon Lloyd try he set up, was also quick to praise the opposition.

‘‘Gloucester played very well. They played a very physical game and made sure they never let us get our usual 10-point cushion and that’s what I’d expected,’’ he said.

‘‘I felt we came out in the second half a bit disappointed at how we hadn’t managed to finish things off in the first half and wanted to step up the gears and play some decent rugby.

‘‘But on the day we were disappointed with our basic skills and some of our decision making and we put ourselves under pressure.

‘‘But credit to Gloucester they capitalised and obviously it was a very tight and tense finish.’’

Lloyd’s try was just one of a couple of controversial decisions by French referee Joel Dume.

After seemingly signalling advantage to Gloucester for a Leicester prop Graham Rowntree’s knock-on when no advantage materialised he allowed play to carry on instead of awarding the West Country side a scrum.

Stimpson then broke from the right wing and cut inside before off-loading the ball to Lloyd, who ran in under the posts.

‘‘We expected to come back for the scrum, but you have got play to the referee,’’ said Gloucester captain Phil Vickery.

‘‘Leicester were switched on, counter-attacked and caught us napping.’’

The Tigers also saw skipper Martin Johnson sin-binned on 52 minutes along with Gloucester’s Junior Paramore and they were lucky not to lose substitute hooker Richard Cockerill who also traded blows with the Samoan number eight.

Johnson was surprised by his yellow card, claiming he had been pushed in the back, fell to the floor and was then told by Dume to go off, together with Paramore.

And Richards was equally bemused: ‘‘Martin wasn’t the perpetrator, and I was a little surprised to see him sin-binned.

But these things happen in cup semi-finals. Referees like to try and lay the law down on occasions, and I think that is probably what he was doing.’’

Leicester, with three consecutive league championships under their belt, now have the chance of completing the treble with European glory and the Zurich Premiership title still very much up for grabs.

And Richards believes the whole squad will be upset if they do not go on to win either title.

‘‘I think we would feel a little bit disappointed if we don’t come away with something else this year,’’ he said.

‘‘We do feel we’ve got a very strong side and we’ve got the strength of character and strength in depth.

He added: ‘‘It’s not that we feel over confident about getting something else it’s about that desire to win something else and that desire’s there for the players to go out and win the European Cup or the play-offs.

‘‘The desire is there to go out and achieve something else because we’ve already got three championships behind us.’’