Richard Cockerill's not guilty plea was a major factor in the length of his nine-match suspension by the RFU.
The full written judgement of the Leicester Tigers director of rugby's disciplinary hearing has made public the full details from his four-hour hearing.
The RFU made it clear in their summary that Cockerill's failure to admit he was guilty of "unprofessional or inappropriate behaviour" made them hand down such a serious punishment.
Tigers have until 10am today to appeal against the decision.
The document depicts the events in and around Cockerill's exchange with fourth official Stuart Terheege during the Aviva Premiership final on May 25 against Northampton Saints.
And, as part of a vigorous defence of his actions, Tigers also hired the same lip-reading expert that was used in the high-profile alleged racial abuse case between footballers John Terry and Anton Ferdinand, Sue Whitewood.
But their attempts to exonerate Cockerill from blame were futile as the three-man panel accused the Leicester boss of an "insidious and petulant act intended to threaten match officials into altering the way they officiated."
They added that "the game's core values, namely respect, discipline and sportsmanship, seem to us, to have passed Mr Cockerill by.
"If subjectively he feels entitled to behave in this manner... (that) must be factored into our approach to sanction."
The basis of Cockerill's frustration was that the match officials were not asking for a TMO review of an incident in which Saints' Courtney Lawes was penalised for a late hit on Tigers fly-half Toby Flood, who then left the game with concussion.
While admitting that he swore in an exchange with Terheege, Cockerill said his words were "justified in the circumstances" and that his use of such words "did not make his actions aggressive".
Cockerill added that he "had every right to defend his players" and that, in future, he would "make the same point again but perhaps without using the same language".
Supporting their case, the RFU used footage from an "opposing coach" – believed to be Saints assistant Dorian West – who claimed during an ESPN interview at half-time that Cockerill was trying to "intimidate the officials".
They also referred to complaint e-mails from members of the public and clippings from nationals newspapers – both of which called for action against Cockerill.
The RFU maintained, however, that "the decision to bring the charge against Mr Cockerill was not influenced by any pressure from the media or from members of the public."
Key witness, Terheege, claimed he "had not felt threatened or intimidated" by Cockerill.
But he added that he regarded comments made to him as "highly unprofessional, ill-disciplined and inappropriate".
Tigers club officials reacted angrily this week to the suspension of their director of rugby and said the results of the hearing were "very disappointing".
They also hammered the RFU over their handling of the case and called into question the new disciplinary structure at the game's HQ.
