Leicester fume over Cockerill ban
English Premiership champions Leicester on Wednesday rebuked national governing body the Rugby Football Union (RFU) over the nine-game ban given to director of rugby Richard Cockerill.
Cockerill was handed the suspension on Tuesday for an outburst towards fourth official Stuart Terheege during Leicester's 37-17 Premiership final victory over Northampton at Twickenham on May 25.
Leicester will wait to receive the written judgement before deciding whether or not to appeal against the verdict, but they said they were "extremely disappointed" with the RFU's handling of the case.
"There are elements of the way in which they have conducted this case which, in our opinion, calls into question the new disciplinary structure and we will be taking this up with the RFU at the earliest opportunity," read a statement released by the club.
"The club will not make any further comment about this until there has been an opportunity to discuss it with the union and it is appropriate that this is dealt with privately.
"Richard Cockerill has been a central part of Leicester Tigers' continued success over many years and the club will fully support him and the rest of the coaching team for the 2013-14 season."
Cockerill's ban means the novice coaching duo of Paul Burke and ex-Leicester captain Geordan Murphy will be in charge of the English champions at the start of next season.
AFP
