RUGBY bosses have issued a statement after Dean Ryan claimed Worcester Warriors were the side against whom referees had made the most mistakes in the Aviva Premiership.

Warriors director of rugby Ryan claimed Premiership Rugby and the RFU had a document which showed Warriors at the bottom of a trend report for their last two seasons in the top flight.

RFU bosses and Premiership Rugby confirm they will not be making the data available to the public because it would hinder the development of referees.

Today, the RFU and Premiership Rugy have issued a joint statement in response to Ryan's claims last night after Warriors lost 16-14 to Bath.

A joint RFU and Premiership Rugby statement said: "As part of our professional standards all decisions by match officials in Aviva Premiership Rugby are analysed in minute detail after every game, and a report compiled.

"This report is circulated to all directors of rugby and shared with match officials as part of their development programme.

"The information in the report is kept within that group because the key objective of the exercise is for match officials to develop and improve.

"Clearly that objective will be hindered if the report is made public and statistics taken out of context.

"We would never comment on the contents of the report publicly as that would undermine the system and our match officials.

"The development of our match officials is a partnership between a number of parties.

"We have a strong and dedicated group of match officials. Like players and coaches they make mistakes but the standard of officiating in Aviva Premiership Rugby is as good if not better than in any league in the world."