B&I Cup: Jersey coach Steve Boden frustrated by referee

Jersey forwards coach Steve Boden has blamed referee James McPhail for their British & Irish Cup defeat by Ayr.

The Scottish club won a close-fought game 14-13, but both teams went out of the competition.

"I try not to criticise refs as it's a hard job but I thought the refereeing was poor," Boden told BBC Jersey.

"The easiest way to win the game was through the scrum and the maul, but we had that taken away from us by the referee which was disappointing."

Boden, who has been in interim charge at Jersey since Ben Harvey's departure as director of rugby, had a particular issue with the referee's consistency.

"It was as if he got bored of giving the penalties and was thinking 'I've given two penalties, I can't give a third', Well, you can give a third, and a fourth, fifth and sixth if you have to," he said.

Boden also criticised the performance of his players for letting a winning position slip, having been 7-0 and 13-7 ahead.

"We've been pretty naive," he said. "Our game management was poor and I think we were a bit complacent at times.

"We got a few points up and started playing in the middle third. But we continued to do it and I've got to work out why. If my messages aren't clear enough, then I have to look at myself and we go from there.

"There were some good bits of play but there weren't a huge amount of positives to take from the game."

Jersey finished third in Pool Six behind Championship rivals Cornish Pirates and Ulster Ravens.