Cockerill takes Venter's line as he rails against European officials

Cockerill risked the wrath of competition organisers ERC by criticising the performance of referee Peter Fitzgibbon as the Tigers' European ambitions suffered a setback.

Saracens boss Brendan Venter was fined 25,000 euros by ERC last month for criticising referees in the aftermath of his side's Heineken Cup defeat by Leinster at Wembley.

Cockerill said: "It is not the referee's fault we drew today, we have to deal with the issues – but clearly the lawmakers have some issues to deal with because today was a complete mess at the breakdown.

"It seems to be the sides that want to cheat, lie down at the breakdown, kill the ball and not roll away are getting away with it more and more.

"They came with a plan to not let us play. We spoke to (ERC match officials performance manager) Donal Courtney and he assured us there would be zero tolerance at the breakdown.

"Clearly there wasn't zero tolerance today.

"Every time we got to the 22 they killed the ball, they didn't roll away, they were in at the side whereas we are told it is zero tolerance.

"The lawmakers come out with these mandates and they say 'This is how it is going to be refereed'.

"You try to play, you can't play. The referee doesn't deal with it, you can't ruck anybody, you can't use physical force to move anybody so how are you meant to play the game? I am lost for words on that."

Leicester led 13-6 after a try from Alesana Tuilagi and had their chances to win the game but Billy Twelvetrees missed four penalty shots at goal.

Perpignan finished with 14 men after lock Rimas Alvarez Kairelis had been sin-binned but they remained in touch and Nicolas Laharrague snatched the draw with a last-minute penalty.

Leicester lost out on the chance to take control of the group. They must win at the Scarlets, who currently top the pool, and beat Treviso at home to stand any chance of qualification.

"You'd like to think you'd win your home games but it is still all to play for," said Cockerill.

"If we want to qualify we have to win both games. Whether it is top of the pool will come down to bonus points."

Perpignan's former Leicester prop Perry Freshwater said: "Not many teams come here and get any kind of result.

"We're very happy. Our form isn't great away from home. It feels like a win.

"The boys are very happy in the changing room."