Northampton rugby director John Steele has fired a furious verbal broadside at London Irish following last weekend's ill-tempered Zurich Premiership clash between the clubs.

Irish referred three incidents of alleged foul play to Rugby Football Union citing officer Johnny Johnson after their 24-15 defeat.

Johnson is currently studying video footage, and should complete his investigation later this week.

Exiles player-coach Brendan Venter also slammed Saints' England scrum-half Matt Dawson for repeatedly talking to the referee, but Steele has now hit back.

And he has also ruled out taking action against England wing Ben Cohen, one of the Northampton players Saints believe Irish have complained about.

"I have looked at the incident involving Ben Cohen, which took place within two yards of the referee, who was well-sighted to see what was happening," said Steele.

"We will be taking no action," he added.

"These complaints have come from a club that has failed to pay debts from the merger of London Irish, London Scottish and Richmond three years ago, despite money being provided for them to do so.

"More recently, they illegally substituted three front-row forwards, and when questioned on this, placed the blame at the RFU's door," said former London Scottish rugby director Steele.

"London Irish seemed to want to criticise everything and everybody after last weekend's game.

"I think they should look to put their house in order before speaking out in this way."

Steele's retort comes as Gloucester prepare their response to Newcastle boss Rob Andrew's racist abuse allegation made against the West Country club's French international hooker Olivier Azam.