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A frustrated Pat Lam said neither of Exeter Chief’s two tries in their 14-9 victory over the Bristol Bears should have stood.

The Bristol head coach said Luke Cowan-Dickie’s line out throw for Santiago Cordero’s opening try on the stroke of half time was not straight, and then he claims Exeter broke the laws of the game by their backs advancing too quickly to join the line out drive, shortly before Sean Lonsdale crashed over at the bottom of a pile of Chiefs.

Lam revealed he had identified Exeter’s tendency for the backs to join the famous Exeter maul too quickly before the game and has spoken the RFU’s head of professional game match officials Tony Spreadbury about it this week, with his law book, footage and pictures as proof.

(Image: PA)

So that fact it was missed by referee Craig Maxwell-Keys left him exasperated.

That’s back-to-back defeats against Exeter this season which has left Lam and the Bristol faithful spitting feathers over the officiating after they were beaten 31-29 at Ashton Gate by a controversial injury time penalty try.

Lam said: “We had moments in the game at 9-7, to win it, but we lost them.

“We had a lineout off a penalty which we lost, which is disappointing, we had a scrum overturned but the thing I am must frustrated about is this thing at the moment of the laws not being refereed right.

“Law 18.35 and 18.36b, I have studied them.

“Exeter are a great side but they do not score their line out maul tries from five metres out without their backs.

(Image: Rogan/JMP)

“If you look at the law, and what they do, as soon as the ball is thrown their backs come flying up. They are allowed to do that but must retreat 10 metres back, and not hang around two or three metres away, if the ball does not go more than 15 metres and is brought down, which happened at our ground.

“That is why I was annoyed with this and they did it against Saracens .

“They have to go back 10 metres and they can not join until the line out is over.

“I put the clip in and spoke to Spredders and he said oh, no one has really refereed that rule. So I said look at the lawbook, it is a penalty offence.

“When you look at the build-up to that second try they are all offside and it should be a penalty but it wasn’t. So what was the point [in all that work].

“I am not saying I have an issue with Exeter, I am saying the referees have to know their lawbook and understand."

Lam is certainly correct on the rule which reads:

Law 18.35

“Once the ball has been thrown in by a team-mate, players who are not participating in the lineout may move forward. If that occurs, then their opponents may also move forward. If the ball does not go beyond the 15-metre line, the players will not be liable to sanction if they immediately retire to their respective offside lines. [10 metres back]

Sanction: Penalty