Andre Bester

"The referee got in the way for the third try; he got in the way the whole time with the scrums. We went forward in the scrums on their ball and they stood up and they did it three times in the match in crucial positions. On the fourth occasion with a minute remaining he finally gave a penalty against them for that. Where’s the consistency?

Every time they went into the tackle situation one of their guys came in from the side. It was complete chaos and a free for all in there! The point is we go out there to play to the laws of the game; we go out there to give the minimum penalties away. If the refereeing in this country is of such, then we will also say let’s have a free for all and let’s see what we can get away with. Because we are being penalized and we are being punished by referees that can’t apply the laws of the game.

Make no mistake they have experienced players who know how to play the referee and obviously there must be something in the mind of the referee that they’re a Premiership side. It’s disgraceful, the contact area was a free for all, we came in from behind and they came in from the side. They were pulling mauls down left, right and centre. They pulled one down and kicked Errie Claasens on the ground in front of the touch judge and nothing was done.

I’m not blaming the referee for our defeat; I’m blaming the referee for not giving Rotherham the chance to compete.

I’m so proud of all my guys out there today! But it should have been a 50-50 game and it wasn’t, the man in the middle made that impossible. Our guys deserved better. Our guys are already looking forward to our next match against them because they now know they can compete against them.

My big thing today was I wanted a performance from the players. You’ll never see me losing 22-7 and be happy with the performance, but I am because I have to take the referee into consideration.

Looking at the positives, I think we out scrummed them completely, I thought when we went on the front foot we looked good. We weren’t out gunned physically in the contact situation – which we were against Penzance - and our line out in the second half was good. I’m very encouraged and you’ve got to ask yourself, where will this team be twelve months down the line?"

"It was a tough physical game, they are a strong side, but I think we fronted up and we did well in the scrums. I thought we could have done better in the line out although to be fair they mark up really well in the line out’s and we knew they would.

I’m happy with our performance although I’m disappointed with the referee; I thought he was a bit iffy! I believe we were physically very strong today and I don’t think there was much in it. Big decisions cost us and maybe Mehrtens boot put us back quite a bit and that made a difference, he can get them out of pressure.

This game could have gone either way, they didn’t look better than us. They used their possession better in the end and turned it into points."

"It was a tough game, hopefully everyone enjoyed it. It was pretty much what we expected, it was a hard battle. The game was there for either team right up until the last five or ten minutes! We are glad to come away from a ground like this with a win.

Rotherham have certainly got a lot of grunt, they’ve got some big strong aggressive forwards and big strong aggressive backs. And when you get 15 committed guys like that, then any teams pretty tough to stop. I think they are a very good team, I know they haven’t gone so well away yet, but I think this competition shows that any team can have a good crack any other team on their day.

We are finding teams are really tough on their own tracks, they want to knock us over and we’re finding that kind of intensity every week and that’s great. We are enjoying the challenge although it’s going to get a wee bit tiring. But at the moment things are going alright and we’re having to lift our game, but I’m enjoying the competition all round.

We were always on our guard in this game, we were never far enough ahead to relax –not that you want to relax anyway – but we never really had a big buffer. You know at one point it was 15-7 and they were kicking a penalty and it only just missed by a whisker. They would have been within a try of striking distance, so we weren’t able to sit back and think we’ve got this one. We knew we were in for 80 minutes hard rugby and it turned out like that.

People ask me is it a come down to play at grounds like this, but this is what most of our grounds in New Zealand are like, which is where I started my rugby. I think this is fantastic and I’m enjoying playing at the places we are going. We are going to some fantastic clubs with a lot of history. And we are getting a lot of people travelling along way from London to come and support us, I think that’s fantastic – I hope everyone enjoyed the day.

I’m aware it’s going to get a lot colder than this in the next few months, I’m welcoming it, it’s too bloody hot for an old man like me. So far I’ve really enjoyed it and the rugby has been a lot better than what people have talked about.

It’s really easy for people to write about Harlequins and say they should walk through this division, but you’re up against 15 committed guys every week and they’re out to smash you and it’s still 15 on 15 at the end of the day."

Dean Richards

"It was a hard game today, there’s no doubt about that. Rotherham were up for it and it was always going to be difficult for us to get back up after last week and it wasn’t an easy game at all.

We’re disappointed not having picked up the bonus point; we had opportunities to do it. At the same time you have to take your hat off to Rotherham they defended extremely well, we were camped on their line for a long time and they didn’t concede at all.

We weren’t as good second half, but we didn’t take our foot off the pedal, Rotherham stepped it up a gear. They’re a big heavy side and it’s going to take its toll on sides coming up here, especially when it gets a little bit damp. But as I said they’re a strong side and it’s not easy at all.

Getting back into the Premiership isn’t a forgone conclusion for us; we’re only two points ahead of Bedford at this moment in time. We’ve got to go down there in December, but were not even looking that far ahead. Our next game is Sedgley Park in the cup next week and then we’ve got them in the league and you can’t look any further than that.

We are pleased at where we are at the moment, especially when you consider we’ve played a lot away from home. We’re doing alright and the pleasing thing for me is everybody’s putting it in, there’s a good work ethic within the club and there’s a great spirit there as well.

Andrew Mehrtens has been a breath of fresh air in many respects. His ability not just with ball in hand but as a personality to change things and to keep people alert has been tremendous. He’s a great character and you need characters in this game, he’s not your archetypical ten at all, we’ve been pleased with him, he’s very good."