Jones: Unhappy with what he saw as inconsistent officiating

London Welsh head coach Lyn Jones was left frustrated with how their match at Saracens was officiated after the hosts went top of the table.

The 35-14 reverse comes at the end of a difficult week for the Exiles, who face the prospect of having points deducted on Tuesday for fielding an ineligible player in scrum-half Tyson Keats.

However, Saracens go onwards and upwards. They now lead Harlequins by four points at the summit with winger David Strettle again pushing his claim for an England recall.

And Jones said: "Coaches, players or anybody involved in rugby aren't perfect. We all make mistakes but all we ask for is consistency and that was missed.

"You just want to go from week to week with a basic understanding of what is a competitive ruck.

"I felt the first two rucks were clear wins for us but they were penalties against us and if that's what the rules are that's fine.

"But then in the second half it wasn't like that - are you allowed to compete for the ball or not? I'm just confused about it and I'm just a coach.

"I don't know what it's like for players because one week it's all one thing then the following week it's completely different and I'm struggling with the consistency."

Strettle's score with eight minutes left sealed a third straight try bonus point win for Saracens, to add to second half efforts from Joel Tomkins and Will Fraser.

This came after the hosts were awarded a penalty try in the first half to cancel out a debut score by London Welsh winger Seb Stegmann.

And Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall said: "Credit to them but we were loose in the first half and in the end we're pleased to get the five points against a team that gave everything.

"David [Strettle] is playing the best he's played in certainly the last three seasons. Obviously he's scored a try but he was instrumental in the build-up to some of the others so he's playing as well as he has since he joined us.

"Being top is obviously a good position to be in - we've got Quins here next in two weeks time, which is going to be a huge game.

"This part of the season is about positioning yourself so to respond from the London Irish game where we played so poorly with three bonus point wins is a heck of an effort."