Cooper-Avon-Tyres 6, Devizes 27

MARK Simmons berated his players for losing their cool with the referee as CATs threw away the chance of a first victory of the season on Saturday.

The home side were leading 6-3 when prop Paul Hayden was sin-binned for an infringement in the ruck, which led to a penalty try for Devizes.

The CATs players were so incensed by the decision they lost focus and the Saddlebacks used their extra-man advantage to score three more tries.

Simmons believes his players were a little hard done by but says they must learn to play to the whistle if they want to turn their stuttering season around.

He said: "Everyone knows I will always support the referee, it doesn't matter how good or bad he is.

"Once the penalty try was awarded the boys let it get to them. From then on it was all about the ref and that is totally wrong.

"Sometimes in life, not just in rugby, things go against you. But instead of pulling together we deteriorated and let Devizes run away with it.

"Thing are difficult enough as it is at the moment without making it harder on ourselves. The boys know they let themselves down." he said.

CATs took a lead into the break for the first time this season thanks to two penalties from the boot of Matt Trueman.

But Devizes, fresh off last week's morale-boosting victory over Wimborne, were in no mood to be dominated.

The Saddlebacks began to assert more pressure in the scrum and it was strong forward play that lead to the penalty try.

The final 20 minutes was one-way traffic as Devizes crossed the whitewash three times to send CATs crashing to a seventh consecutive league defeat.

Simmons said afterwards his players must show more respect to the officials if they want to be treated fairly in future.

"You've got to get on the right side of the referee, otherwise decisions will go against you.

"If I was in charge of the game and the players kept questioning me, I would think twice about awarding any 50/50 decisions to their team."

Despite the defeat, Simmons was impressed with the way his players handled the big Devizes back in the first period.

"I thought we played much better this week. We competed well in the contact areas and for long periods we matched Devizes," he said.

"Once the decisions started going against us our heads dropped. That's something we cannot allow to happen and we will be working on that."

CATs travel to Oxfordshire side Witney tomorrow in the EDF Senior Vase looking for a win to kick start their season.

Witney currently lie second in the Southern Counties North and Simmons expects another stiff challenge.

"We have not placed too much importance on the cup this season but it's another chance to test ourselves against a side that's been performing well.

"We will give it our best shot," he said.