Prem boss says yellow card an 'embarrassment' as duo denied perfect ending
Leicester Tigers boss Michael Cheika took aim at the referee after coming up short in the Premiership final as he declared Dan Cole's yellow card an "embarrassment"
Leicester Tigers boss Michael Cheika claimed it is "an embarrassment to the game" that Dan Cole received a yellow card in the Premiership final - which Bath edged at Twickenham.
The Midlands outfit were looking to end their era on a high. Head coach Cheika is leaving whilst club legends Cole and Ben Youngs were both playing their last ever games after trophy-laden periods with the Welford Road outfit.
Both appeared from the replacement bench, but Cole was yellow carded and sent to the sin bin for the final 10 minutes as his career ended on a low. He attempted to charge down Finn Russell but made contact with the Bath fly-half and was penalised by referee Karl Dickson.
Cheika bemoaned the performance of the referee, claiming they "got nothing back" despite their perceived dominance a scrum time. the Leicester boss was also stunned that Cole received his yellow and stated that rugby will be embarrassed by such decisions.
The Australian told TNT Sports: "I thought we got nothing back from the referee at all and we kept on coming back and turning up. We scored three tries to two, that tells you something. I'm super proud of the players.
'[I was] just upset with the decisions on the field. The scrum we were dominating – obvious ones, not 50-50s. The scrum we were dominating completely. A couple of head knocks, a couple of balls where we could have got penalties there easily. [We had] two men in the bin, [and] the second one [was] for nothing, really. It is embarrassing for the game that a player goes off for that. I'm allowed to be angry, but I got over it and am happy to accept the result now and get on with the next thing.'
Pressed further on the yellow card incident he said: 'For me personally, if the game is sending players to the sin bin for that, or even penalising [them]…What do I say, mate? If I say something, I'll get myself in strife and take away from the champion team who have led the competition and deserve to win the competition."
Cole had only been on the pitch for seven minutes, running on to a heart-warming reception, and had looked to charge down the Bath 10. His yellow meant that the Tigers were up against it to mount a comeback, even if they kept scoring points with a man less.
Leicester came up with two late tries to set-up a grandstand finish, but ultimately came up short as Bath won their first Premiership title for nearly 30 years. Thomas Du Toit and Max Ojomoh came up with their tries as Youngs and Cole missed out on a champion farewell.
"It hurts, but I'm proud," Youngs told BBC Radio Leicester. "My emotions are all over the place right now. You have so much ambition to win today and you don't, and you have that to deal with as you try to take it in. It's a funny old feeling."
Meanwhile Bath skipp Ben Spencer said: "The future of this club is unbelievably bright, no matter who pulls on the shirt it's next man in. The work ethic is second to none. As long as we keep our feet on the floor and keep on wanting to get better, the sky is the limit for this team."
He added: "The amount of hard work this has taken to turn the ship around... we were bottom three years ago. I can't credit [Johnan Van Graan] enough, he's been absolutely brilliant. If we [understand] there's always an opportunity to get better then I'm really excited for the next couple of years."
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Telegraph
20 minutes ago
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Where Premiership champions Bath rank in our top 10 title winners
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Also a brilliant sign-off to possibly my favourite English player of the modern era in Courtney Lawes. Key player: Courtney Lawes Underrated player: Fraser Dingwall Favourite player: Courtney Lawes 9. Exeter, 2017 Only Leicester City's 2015 Premier League title surpasses the Chiefs' rise to the top of the English rugby pyramid in terms of fairy-tale value in English sport. This was an epic final against a Wasps side that might just have featured the most loaded backline of all time – Wille Le Roux, Christian Wade, Elliot Daly, Jimmy Gopperth, Josh Bassett, Danny Cipriani and Dan Robson. Gareth Steenson kicked a penalty to take it to extra time and then another one three minutes from the end. Given that they lost three other finals to Saracens, it also featured a cathartic semi-final defeat of their great rivals, featuring the most ballsy kick to a corner I have ever seen live from Henry Slade. Incredible finish to the Exeter and Saracens game! What balls from Slade! The Chiefs are in the final! — RugbyLAD 🏉 (@RugbyLAD7) May 20, 2017 Key player: Don Armand Underrated player: Phil Dollman Favourite player: Thomas Waldron 8. Sale, 2006 A personal favourite team of mine, from a back row of Magnus Lund, Jason White and Sébastien Chabal – yes please – to the canny half-back duo of Richard Wigglesworth and Charlie Hodgson and a fabulously balanced back three of Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto and Oriol Ripol. Philippe Saint-André's side were up against an excellent Leicester team – see next entry – but mastered the rainy conditions and the occasion superbly. Stuart Barnes's commentary of 'drop goal, it has to be three points' only for Hodgson to pull off a sensational dummy for Ripol to score just before half-time is also rooted in my head. There are some classic moments in this 📼 Here's a throwback to 2006, when @SaleSharksRugby beat @LeicesterTigers 45-20 to become champions of England for the first time 😮💨 #GallagherPrem — Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) June 11, 2025 Key player: Charlie Hodgson Underrated player: Oriol Ripol Favourite player: Ignacio Fernández Lobbe 7. Leicester, 2007 Sometimes you just need to forget everything else and focus on the performance and this amounted to the most brutal beat-down ever witnessed in a Premiership final. Gloucester arrived at Twickenham as the darlings of the league, playing a dazzling brand of rugby. A bit like the famous fight scene in Game of Thrones between the Viper and the Mountain, for all Gloucester's razzle-dazzle Leicester just focused on crushing the Cherry & Whites' skull with a display of fearsome power. 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Key player: Finn Russell Underrated player: Quinn Roux Favourite player: Ted Hill 5. Exeter, 2020 The high point of the Exeter project as Rob Baxter's side completed a Premiership and Champions Cup double. Such a shame that Covid restrictions prevented more people from witnessing the culmination of Exeter's remarkable rise. Their strength lay in blending a home-grown core of Henry Slade, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Jack Nowell with canny recruits such as Dave Ewers and Jacques Vermeulen. Everything about Exeter was about industry and work-rate. Their close-range pick-and-go tactics might not have always been the prettiest, but they were pretty much impossible to defend until the laws changed. Key player: Henry Slade Underrated player: Sam Skinner Favourite player: Olly Woodburn 4. 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The Guardian
an hour ago
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Finn Russell savours Bath win as he looks forward to Lions test
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ITV News
an hour ago
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Bath Rugby victory parade after historic treble season
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