Harlequins director of rugby Dean Richards has rounded on England players who publicly criticise head coach Brian Ashton - insisting they should not play for their country again.

Following his side's 10-8 victory over London Irish in the EDF Energy Cup, former international Richards (pictured) spoke out over the comments directed at Ashton from Lawrence Dallaglio and Mike Catt in serialisations of their books in Sunday newspapers.

Richards explained: "I find it very disturbing that players are coming out and slating Brian.

"I think it's absolutely disgraceful. These guys should never play for England again.

"Everybody has reasons on occasion to criticise coaches but the unwritten rule in rugby is that you don't criticise each other in the press. It's an absolute disgrace.

"You've got a coach who's taken you into the World Cup final and there may have been a certain amount of discord, but you'd have taken that this time last year."

Meanwhile, Richards was pleased with his side's narrow success, secured with a Chris Hala'ufia try and five points from the boot of Adrian Jarvis.

He explained: "We were a bit surprised to be up at half-time and we shut them down in the second half."

London Irish counterpart Brian Smith was left frustrated after the Exiles had two tries disallowed - one for debutant Peter Richards and another for number eight Phil Murphy, who did eventually get over the line in the first half.

Delon Armitage added a penalty for Irish but later limped off, compounding the broken wrist suffered by Shane Geraghty in training that will keep him out for up to six weeks.

Smith said: "Peter Richards should have been awarded his try but we didn't take our chances in the second half and we were frustrated by random refereeing decisions, but we didn't help ourselves because we turned the ball over in their 22.

"On five or six occasions in the game we had a chance to turn pressure into points inside their 22 and we didn't take them, so with all the intent in the world and coming here wanting to play, we have to be better than that.

"We didn't deserve victory on that basis."

Yesterday's other match saw Bristol record an 18-11 win over Llanelli in Group D.

Bristol head coach Richard Hill took a back seat for the game, leaving assistant Paul Hull in charge.

The former Bristol and England full-back said: "We've had a bit of fun in training this past week but also preparing to win and the pre-match team talk was just about playing to win.

"In the first half they certainly did that, scoring two tries, and the boys had a lot of commitment and good attitude - this was probably the best we have played for a long time.

"The attitude and commitment in defence was outstanding and we held on right to the bitter end to secure the win."

Scarlets coach Phil Davies said: "We were well beaten. We didn't provide a platform at set-piece or contact area. We were very persistent.

"We kept going and there was lots of effort, but we were not as smart as we have been or are capable of being. There are no complaints."

SportingLife / Eurosport