If it was anybody but Rob then the comments may be taken a bit more seriously. His reputation as a professional whinger go before him but he was making these same points before the start of the season.

The issue he highlighted was the way British rugby is blighted by all sorts of tricks at the breakdwn. They're all designed to stop the side with the ball getting it away quickly and making the game a better spectacle.

That's just about what happened when James Isaacson galloped into the Glaws forwards with a suprising five minutes of injury time on the clock. The ball didn't come out and Roy Maybank reckoned it was our Unlucky Jim who had decided not to release it. Some refs might have dediced that he was unable to release it because the Glaws forwards didn't want him to, for obvious match losing reasons, and prevented him from playing it.

Henry Paul kicked an excellent penalty and Glaws won by those three points.

Rob said: "I want to look at every decision the referee made. This guy is a professional referee and he must be accountable. Unless we clear the breakdown area we will not have a decent game in this country. It happens week after week."

It has to be said that Falcons were also guilty of stifling the breakdown on more than one occasion. Rob reckons the refs have said repeatedly that this season they will be looking at the breakdown and getting tacklers off the ball. About time they started.

Maybank himself has been hitting the headlines for awarding penalties and playing lots of injury time. At KP he awarded no less than 27 pens but we were lucky...his average so far this season has been more than 30.

The game itself was a disappointment until those dramatic closing minutes. Glaws huffed and puffed but looked nothing like Championship contenders while we at least tried to open the game up and keep the ball in play.

The first half was a private affair between Jonny W and Mercier. Both slotted two penlaties each but Glaws got the first try when Junior Paramore was pushed over. The visitors were taking advantage of Hugh Vyvyan's absence. He was in the sin bin for obstruction.

More JW kicks brough the score to 12-13. Glaws added a couple of more penalties in the second to lead 12-19 at the end of 80 minutes. Enter Epi who showed why the TV boys love him with a superb try.

Tom May started the move sending Jonny away. He moved theball on to Joe Shaw who fed Epi who litterally barged his way through the cover to go in under the posts and the kick levelled the scores. It pleased Rob no end. "No other flanker in the world could have done what he did," he said.

Then came those five added minutes and that controversial penalty and only one point gained for Falcons..

Falcons: Botham, Shaw, Godman, May, Noon, Wilkinson, Charlton [Grindal 75], Peel [Isaacson 65], Brotherstone [Thompson 60], Ward [Hurter 45], Grimes, Vyvyan, Otuvaka [Hamilton 20-28] [Taoine 45], Arnold [Devonshire 60], Dowson.

Gloucester: Paul, Delport, Fanolua, Todd [Simpson-Daniel 70], Beim, Mercier [Garvey 55], Gomarsall, Collazo, Azam [Fortey 65], Vickery, Fidler, Cornwell, Boer, Forrester [Buxton 67] Paramore.