Cardiff Blues: Head coach John Mulvihill unhappy with crucial decisions
- Published
Referee Nigel Owens took charge of the 2015 World Cup final
Cardiff Blues coach John Mulvihill questioned two second-half decisions in the defeat by Ospreys that cost his region a Champions Cup play-off place.
Referee Nigel Owens disallowed a Tomos Williams try for obstruction while the officials also did not award Blues a penalty try.
This was after Ospreys full-back Dan Evans was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
"That's disappointing for us," said Mulvihill.
Evans was sin-binned after 70 minutes but Mulvihill believes Wales scrum-half Tomos Williams would have scored if the Ospreys full-back had not knocked the ball on.
"I thought it was going to be a penalty try and Nigel was going to award it, but there was a lot of talk in the mic from the TMO and touch judges," said Mulvihill.
"We clearly had three players in and around the ball and their nearest player was George North who was 15 metres that way and their other winger was 15 metres the other way and Tomos had about 25m to run."
Ospreys coach Allen Clarke said he thought North had a chance to cover.
"I am sure that's up there for debate, that's why it went to the TMO," said Clarke
"But George North was covering back and he's no slouch. You look at it through the colour of the lens that you support.
"It's understandable for people to be aggrieved. We would have been aggrieved."
Mulvihill was also not happy Blues captain Nick Williams was earlier ruled to have obstructed Ospreys centre Owen Watkin in the build-up to a disallowed 52nd minute try, also for Tomos Williams.
"The ball had already gone past and their player just dived to the ground. It did not look good," he said.
"If you go to the letter of the law, there's obstruction, but the obstruction didn't lead to that tackler missing the tackle because he was miles away from it."
Gareth Anscombe was outstanding as he scored 18 points for the Blues before he joins Ospreys next season.
However, the Wales fly-half did missed a 70th minute penalty when the scores were level at 23-23 and Sam Davies went on to kick the winning penalty for Ospreys in the 79th minute.
Mulvihill does not believe the game was affected by Anscombe's missed kick and says his side must be more ruthless.
"Gareth is disappointed he missed a kick but Sam missed a couple as well so it did not come down to that," said Mulvihill.
"I thought we definitely came to play, but ended up just a bit short. We have to be more clinical in all of our games.
"There has been a season of highs and lows and I am disappointed with how we finished off.
"We set ourselves up to be the best Welsh region in my first year and the Ospreys have come up trumps at the end."
Ospreys coach Clarke was pleased with the character shown by his side.
"We are chuffed with the performance overall," said Clarke.
"Quality and mentality won us that game, particularly in the second half when we played 20 minutes of it with 14 men.
"That tells you a lot about the group as a whole. It was a massive shift from the boys on the field and our tight five were magnificent."