‘I didn’t like it from the start’ – Michael Cheika slams New Zealand referee’s Premiership appointment

Leicester Tigers head coach Michael Cheika was refreshingly candid when asked for his views on the decision to appoint New Zealand's Ben O'Keeffe as the referee for his team's Premiership encounter with Gloucester at Kingsholm on Saturday.

The Cherry and Whites secured a convincing 38-31 win, propelling them into third position in the league table, narrowly ahead of Leicester.

O'Keeffe was in charge of the top-flight league game ahead of the Round One Six Nations match-up between Ireland and England, which he will be officiating this weekend at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Coach Cheika expressed his uncertainty over the appointment of referee O'Keeffe, suggesting that his team did not receive the outcome they merited, saying, "they deserved more than what we got out of that match".

“He's not criticising anyone directly, but he's questioning the decision to bring in international referees for the matches this weekend,” he said to TNT Sports.

‘There is an interpretation that differs from others’

To be honest, I wasn't comfortable with it from the offset, when they announced it was going to happen. It's evident that there's a distinct disparity in the way the ball is being treated on the surface.

We fell victim to the penalty count, and we need to improve in order to deal better with those moments, even though they do come often.

Chief was pleased with his team's overall performance, given its improvement, despite their loss after being thrashed 80-12 by Toulouse in their last match in the Investec Champions Cup.

The Tigers departed Kingsholm with two points from the bonus, but Cheika feels his team should have secured a win.

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They genuinely deserved a better outcome from that game, to be frank.

We travelled here with ambitions of winning, and we need to review a couple areas. We were somewhat disappointing at the lineout, and could have been more precise with our kicking game, so it’s essential we go over it to make sure we leave with a more impressive haul, at least in terms of points.

The ex-coach of Australia and Argentina took a particular moment to commend flankers Tommy Reffell and Olly Cracknell, who showed remarkable dedication in taking to the field despite feeling unwell, with Reffell, in particular, battling on for the full duration.

‘They agreed to engage in the activity as requested.’

“Those boys had an extra day's rest, so it's been good to get them back out on the pitch, especially considering the challenge that we had in front of us, and I thought they both performed well under that pressure,” said Cheika.

One can only wonder how Tommy was able to cope during the 1980s.

Cheika stated that Leicester are on course to achieve their objectives for the season as they've secured a spot in the Investec Champions Cup play-offs and currently occupy one of the top four places in the Premiership standings at this stage in the campaign.

"He admitted we were wounded, that's true, but we grabbed a spot in Europe and as things stand, we might not reach our objective, however, we're still very much in the mix when it comes to the business end of the season," he said.

“We'll now use this time to get some lads match practice and then we'll focus on the areas where we need to improve in order to reach our objectives.”

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