Harlequins v London Welsh: Conor O'Shea criticises referee

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Conor O'Shea

Harlequins director of rugby Conor O'Shea has criticised referee Llyr ApGeraint-Roberts for his performance in their match against London Welsh.

Quins won the game 31-26 but O'Shea was unimpressed with the official.

He told BBC London 94.9: "We focus on ourselves all the time. We focus on the mistakes and errors we make and try and rectify them.

"We try and take officials out of the equation but it was very hard to take him out of the equation."

After the win, which saw Quins return to the top of the Premiership table, O'Shea told BBC Radio 5 live he was "incensed".

"If people are out of their depth they are out of their depth," he added.

"It's not right."

O'Shea also said he was frustrated that previous feedback to the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby has not been listened to.

"We'll go along the same lines we always do," O'Shea continued.

"We'll go to Ed Morrison [head of elite referee development at the RFU], go to Rob Andrew [RFU director of operations] and go to Phil Winstanley [rugby director at Premiership Rugby].

"Or we'll potentially just give up.

"If you are feeding stuff in and it's not being listened to or acted on ... there are things you tear your hair out [about].

"We talk a lot about being clear and obvious.

"We're here with five points but we're pretty frustrated."

O'Shea was unhappy that his side had a higher penalty count at half-time despite leading the match 21-6 at the break.

"We played some outstanding stuff in the first half and could have been further ahead but the game became very fractious," he said.

"It played into one team's hands.

"I'm sure there will be decisions which went against them, no doubt about that, but we were clearly the better team in the first half yet we conceded more penalties than them."

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