I thought it was a try - Mallinder
September 12 2009
Northampton Director of Rugby Jim Mallinder insisted the TMO had cost Saints victory in Saturday's 19-16 defeat by Saracens at Wembley.
Prop Soane Tonga'uiha wriggled over with less than two minutes to go but the attempt was eventually ruled-out because of a knock-on and Saracens survived a frantic finale.
"I thought it was a try and that Soane got the ball down just for an instant," said Mallinder.
"It was long enough to get over the line but it was then pulled away.
"I've got over the decision now - I've hit the wall and done all that sort of business.
"It was a massive decision but you have to be philosophical. It's happened, we've lost and we have one point.
"It's pointless me shouting. It was a very tough call for the video referee."
Saracens Director of Rugby Brendan Venter felt the right call was made and instead turned his attention towards the 68th minute sin-binning of Schalk Brits.
Brits was shown a yellow card when Saints scrum-half Lee Dickson passed the ball straight at him then complained the South African hooker had taken too long to return to an onside position.
"I looked at the replay and said it's not a try boys, prepare for the scrum," said Venter.
"The yellow card came with fifteen minutes to go and in my opinion that's not the way rugby is played.
"A scrum-half can't deliberately throw the ball into Schalk, put his hands in the air and say he was guilty of lazy running.
"That wasn't lazy running, we don't practice or talk about that. I looked at the incident after the match.
"The moment he threw the ball he threw his hands in the air. That's like a con job. Referee Andrew Small took the con and that wasn't right.
"The player got it wrong, what he's doing wasn't right. It's not in the spirit of the game. Lee Dickson is the culprit here and not Schalk.
"The same player did the same thing against Worcester's Pat Sanderson last week - he chucked the ball into him, it wasn't a plot by Pat.
"Had Schalk stayed on I don't think it would have been that complex at the end."
An impressive crowd of 44,832 turned up to watch the first club rugby union match at Wembley, the first of Saracens' four planned outings to the home of English football.
The day was deemed to be a success, leading Venter to lament Dickson's act of gamesmanship.
"If the club can do something like this game at Wembley, I knew want to be part of it. What a day, what an atmosphere," said Venter.
"There were so many children and families here. Rugby is such a great game, that's why I was disappointed with the scrum-half incident."