Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards has been charged with misconduct after criticising the referee after Sunday’s loss to Exeter.
The Rugby Football Union felt Richards’ behaviour was conduct “prejudicial to the interests of the union and the game” and he must attend an independent disciplinary panel on Wednesday.
In a statement, an RFU spokesperson said the comments “undermined the authority and questioned the integrity of the match official”.
The Falcons, who definitely did get a hard time from the officials, saw referee Christophe Ridley send off Callum Chick on his 99th appearances for the club.
“Josh Hodge clearly dropped his height, and the problem is that referees and TMOs are trying to get a quick decision rather than the right decision,” said Richards. “It was a yellow card. You can’t make such a big decision in such a crucial game as quickly as that. It’s really poor. I’ve spoken to [Exeter head coach] Rob Baxter and he agrees with me. We’d just scored and if we’d 15 men we may have competed better.”
“We didn’t get the rub of the green from the officials. Some of the boys are in the changing rooms saying some of the decisions are questionable, some boys are actually being a bit more vocal than that,” Richards said.
“Adam Brocklebank gets penalised in a scrum when their tighthead quiet clearly goes to the floor and you just think what the hell is going on here.
“There is obviously a bit of favouritism in some shape or form or they don’t know what they are doing. The boys just don’t know what is happening from one week to the next with some of the officiating. It is really disappointing.”