PRO12 R4: Away to Zebre - Live

[BaggyTrousers]

Just had a look on the IRB site, appears no panel has been announced since 2012

A tad suspicious? Possible discord over some refs? Seems strange over maybe at this time of night I'm looking for monsters under the bed.

[rumncoke]

Baldy I played rugby for about 20 years and have watched it for close on 60 and it is only in the last ten years that refs have started to resort to cards . There are more cards issued by refs in a weekend than I saw in the first 40 years of watching rugby ( before you say it by that I mean more players sent off ) because in the first 40 cards weren't in use
) it makes you wonder how the game was played in those days and how refs coped


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[Nightsoil]

It's not that I disagree about the quality of refs but let's not lose sight of the fact, we fecked it up yesterday, refs & TMO s being substandard does not absolve us off playing utter rubbish.

This.

The ref didn't make guys like Wilson and Stevenson knock on easy as hell passes, he didn't make our lineout fall to bits, didn't make Heaney throw a good 5 or so real hospital passes and so on.

Time to stick out the strongest XV we can manage, give it a game to gel against Embra, then hope it does a good job in the three big ones coming up with minimal rotation. A bit of crap at the start of the season while learning new systems and brushing off the rust is acceptable in the greater scheme of times, but we're past the start now.

[scrum5]

Neutral refs and TMO's would help, though not with our appalling skill set..... Obviously

[Scranner]

Strikes me that we can't win. With a partial ref/tmo they go out of their way to appear neutral. Paterson is a great example of this. "I might be from Belfast, boys, but you'll get nothing out of me." And when we have an italian tmo ... well you hada clear illustration of the problem with that on Saturday.

[Cornerfleg]

Our friend Nige was shown a tip tackle yesterday in RSA vs Oz.

Clear as day. TMO wanted cards.
Our Nige looks at the score board, game is close, Nige says, don't want to ruin the spectacle lads, gives the penalty and jogs on

If Nige hadn't given Deccie a red card though I would have been angry.

The man is an idiot. No matter what anyone does to you, in this day and age you cannot throw a punch

The writing was on the wall after 5 minutes ... it became obvious to Deccie that this was going to be so dull a game that there was a greater than 80% chance he wasn't going to get injured or subbed ... survival instinct took over and he saw a way out ... "10 minutes ... I'm fecked ... jeeeez ... there's a head punch it"

[Snipe Watson]

I'll take Hodges or Owens every time in Wales. We need good officials, not neutral ones.

[Cornerfleg]

Who's the wee ginger school boy midget from here who seems to ref out of Scotland ... he wasn't too bad when we got him.

[Rooster]

Who's the wee ginger school boy midget from here who seems to ref out of Scotland ... he wasn't too bad when we got him.

McMenamin ?
Not sure on name but he is being fast tracked through the system, he is very good, Hodges is also getting a lot of more senior matches as he is expected to take over from Nigel Owens

[Kofi Annan]

Scottish chap went to school on Belfast...so you really think he is better than an international standard ref. it's shoot easy to blame Fitzgibbon. I saw ulster getting penalized for popping up in the scrum, I saw ulster being disallowed a try for a player blocking a tackler.

[BR]

Strikes me that we can't win. With a partial ref/tmo they go out of their way to appear neutral. Paterson is a great example of this. "I might be from Belfast, boys, but you'll get nothing out of me." And when we have an italian tmo ... well you hada clear illustration of the problem with that on Saturday.

What way do you want Paterson to whistle?

As for TMOs - the Lt. Col. has done us favours in the past.

[Nightsoil]

Something else that others might have brought up - but seemed to me there were a fair few guys who thought they just had to turn up until we went behind, even when down to 14 men. Minds elsewhere. So much for hoping that binning Cowboy would get rid of the complacency.

[colind]

Who's the wee ginger school boy midget from here who seems to ref out of Scotland ... he wasn't too bad when we got him.

I think you mean Lloyd Linton (ex RBAI). He certainly didn't seem overawed in the game he reffed at Ravenhill last season. Seems to be well thought of in Scottish referee circles. (mind you they haven't exactly a great history)

[bazzaj]

Scottish chap went to school on Belfast...so you really think he is better than an international standard ref. it's shoot easy to blame Fitzgibbon. I saw ulster getting penalized for popping up in the scrum, I saw ulster being disallowed a try for a player blocking a tackler.

On the money there Kofi.
I hate blaming refs as a player and I hate it just as much as a supporter, it just doesn`t interest me.
It lacks honesty as Jim Telfer used to say and its a poor mans excuse for not facing the real issues of what individuals could have done better to achieve victory.

If we were good enough refs should not be an issue.
They can influence tight games but against lower quality opposition like Zebre there should not be tight games so officialdom shouldn`t come into it.

As for the 14 men excuse I didnt see Glasgow exactly struggle against the Dragons away last week when they went down to 14.
If anything they got stronger and went on to get 3 second half tries to secure the bp and win by 20 points.

Maybe its the fact that our back 3, midfield, half backs, back row, 2nd rows and front row have not had much game time together as combinations and partnerships as to why we didnt gel.
Funnily enough as a result of that I didn`t think we looked like a team and we deserved to lose.

[Cornerfleg]

Scottish chap went to school on Belfast...so you really think he is better than an international standard ref. it's shoot easy to blame Fitzgibbon. I saw ulster getting penalized for popping up in the scrum, I saw ulster being disallowed a try for a player blocking a tackler.

Just out of serious curiosity I would like to know if the rant bit was aimed at me ...


I asked who the ginger ref was who was here last year - I reckoned he was good ... I made zero comment about how much better he was than anyone else.