IT doesn’t rain, but it pours and Richard Hill seems to have a hole in his umbrella at the moment.
The luckless Warriors head coach was spitting feathers after the television match official awarded a controversial penalty try to hand Gloucester a last-gasp victory at Kingsholm.
Struggling for form in the Aviva Premiership and without a league win on the road since January 2012, Hill thought the tide had finally turned with his side leading 23-22 in stoppage time when Gloucester knocked-on.
However, elation soon turned to despair as the touch judge’s flag signalled foul play and the TMO decided Jonny May was denied a certain score by Errie Claassens’ trip and referee David Rose was advised to award a penalty try.
“It’s a cruel sport sometimes,” Hill lamented. “When (Ryan) Mills knocked-on, we thought that was it and were all delighted — I didn’t see the touch judge had his flag up.
“There was a hiatus and it was a real bitter blow.
“I think I’m right in saying that if the game hadn’t been on TV, there wouldn’t have been a TMO, so it’s sod’s law that happened in the one game we are on TV. We are just not getting that bit of luck at the moment.”
Hill added: “I thought there was some great intent from our players — sometimes we played a little bit too much maybe — but I can’t fault my players.
“We deserved the win and we played well enough to beat Gloucester at Kingsholm. We will keep working at it and this side is growing and growing all the time — we are coming together and will keep getting better.”
Hill is now challenging his players to channel the frustrations into Friday night’s Sixways clash with high-flying Wasps.
He said: “Far from the heads going down, it is a funny feeling really. The players were broken and disappointed after the Gloucester game, but were soon looking ahead to this week’s game and determined to put things right.
“They are angry about what happened at Kingsholm and we are too good a side to be where we are in the table, but that’s the situation we are in and we have to fight our way out of it.”
On Andy Goode’s decision to turn down three points in favour of a poorly-executed cross-field kick at a key stage of the game, Hill admitted: “If those things come off, then it’s great, but I don’t think that was the right decision at the time and Goodey recognises that.
“That could have been crucial, but we still recovered and got ourselves in front. Goodey picked up a dead-leg in the last play of the first-half, so he had treatment at half-time to keep him going, but he was struggling a bit.”
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