Guinness Premiership Betting: Cockerill rant reflects Tigers' frustration

Guiness Premiership / Ralph Ellis / 26 November 2009 / Leave a comment

After accusing a referee of being out of his depth, Richard Cockerill has become the latest manager to find himself in hot water. Ralph Ellis discusses the consequences of the Leicester boss's four week ban.

"Cockerill's ban could have an impact on Leicester's December 6 trip to Wasps and especially on their back-to-back Heineken Cup clashes with French side Clermont Auvergne."

Here's a story you might think you've read before. The manager of the reigning Premiership champions has been banned for two games and fined after accusing a referee of not being capable of doing his job.

Yes, what Sir Alex Ferguson suffered a few weeks ago, Leicester Tigers' head coach Richard Cockerill has now been through too. The difference is that his ban will be for four weeks rather than two matches. And where Fergie has simply been stopped from sitting on the bench, Cockerill is suspended from all involvement with his team on match days.

Fergie, of course, said Alan Wiley wasn't fit enough to take charge of a Premier League game that his side had failed to win - which was subsequently proved a hollow accusation when the ProZone stats were leaked and Wiley had run further than all but four of Manchester United's players.

Cockerill's accusation against ref Tim Wigglesworth after a match his team had actually won - against Newport Dragons in the LV Cup - was that the Hull Chartered Surveyor in charge of the game was "out of his depth".

We've long had to put up with the fact that attempts to abuse and bully referees have become part of football's culture. Here is proof, though, that making rugby union professional is slowly making the sport vulnerable to the same problem. Thankfully the on-field sanction of being able to penalise a team 10 yards for back chat is still effective, but the more that's at stake, the more players will learn how far they can go in trying to influence an official.

Just as Fergie's blast at Wiley was a cover-up to deflect attention from his own team's problems, however, you can't help wondering if Cockerill's rant is also a sign that Leicester, so dominant in the second half of last season, have lost their way. Currently in fifth place, they lag 11 points behind unbeaten leaders Saracens, and there's no justification at all in their current status as [4.1] second favourites to be regular season winners while Sarries are [3.8] and London Irish [3.7].

The RFU take a UEFA style approach to banning managers - Cockerill is allowed no contact at all with his team on match days until December 23. While that shouldn't affect this weekend's home match against rock bottom Leeds (Leicester are an unbackable [1.02] to win that), it could have an impact on the December 6 trip to Wasps and especially on their back-to-back Heineken Cup clashes with French side Clermont Auvergne. The French side, ironically the team Cockerill played for at the end of his 224 match Tigers career, are well worth backing to top Pool 3 at [2.5]. With Ospreys holding them to a draw at the start of the campaign there's no guarantee, even, that last year's unlucky beaten finalists will even make it out of their group.

Five things you might not know about Richard Cockerill

1. He was 20 before joining Leicester Tigers in 1990, having left school at 16 to work as a cabinet maker, and played for local clubs near his Rugby home

2. He's always admitted he's got a temper, and blames it on competing as a child with his older brother John who was "faster, classier and cleverer at everything."

3. He made his England debut as a replacement in Sir Clive Woodward's first match in charge in 1997, then famously stood a yard from All Blacks hooker Norm Hewitt while eyeballing him during the Haka before his first start

4. His England career ended when he criticised Woodward in his book and was never picked again. "England went on to win the World Cup so who was the fool?", he admits now.

5. This is his second spell in charge of Leicester. First time round he didn't keep the job despite taking Tigers to the top of the table while missing 12 players on World Cup duty

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