Cockerill frustrated by decisions

Leicester head coach Richard Cockerill was critical of the performance of referee Chris White despite seeing his side seal a sixth successive Guinness Premiership final appearance with a 15-6 victory over Bath at Welford Road.

Five penalties from fly-half Toby Flood did the job for the Tigers but former England hooker Cockerill was visibly exasperated by several decisions made by White during the course of the semi-final clash, particularly at the breakdown area.

Cockerill said: "I was a little bit frustrated with some of the decisions. I just want consistency, that's all. I am not embarrassed about it. This is a club I hold dear to my heart and I am passionate about what we do. I work exceptionally hard and I expect everyone to be passionate and do their job as diligently as everyone at this club, including the officials."

He added: "When you drive a scrum back five metres on the 22-metre line and they stand up, exactly like they did when they were given a penalty in the first half, you would expect the referee to give a penalty to us for that good bit of play.

"There is a lot of skill in scrummaging, they (props) are very expensive people to buy and you would like to be able to use them, wouldn't you?"

Bath had taken a 6-0 lead after the in-form Olly Barkley, playing in front of the full England management team after his call into the squad to tour Australia and New Zealand, had kicked two penalties.

But the Tigers slowly began to take a stranglehold on the game and Flood's boot was enough to make the home side's dominance tell.

Although he was less than enamoured with the display of the officials, Cockerill was pleased by his side's performance.

"I thought we did some good things," Cockerill said. "It was a tight game, Bath are a very good side and have been playing very well.

"We were a bit jittery after last week (a defeat to Saracens), neither side looked like scoring, it was very attritional and we defended well and by and large we were well disciplined."