Deadly Dudley? Stick 6 points on the spread

Ho ho ho...

Week 11 and we're at the halfway stage, sitting pretty in 2nd place. A word of warning, this is probably as good as it's going to get for us, we're too far down the table to get decent refs after the new year.

Bit of a messy table this week, both Edinburgh and Glasgow & Zebre and Treviso will have French refs with bags of experience but few Pro12 games, which mess things up a bit. Also the Dragons and Ospreys ref has not been announced.

This is it from me until the new year, I won't update this until January.

Connacht v Munster: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 26th competition game)
Ulster v Leinster: George Clancy (IRFU, 48th competition game)
Blues v Scarlets: Ian Davies (WRU, 2nd competition game)
Glasgow v Edinburgh: Jerome Garces (FFR, 4th competition game)
Zebre v Treviso: Laurent Cardona ( FFR, 2nd competition game)

	Team	Average ref experience (in games)
1.	Ulster	43
2.	Scarlets	28
	Connacht	28
4.	Ospreys	27
5.	Dragons	26
6.	Zebre	20
	Leinster	20
8.	Edinburgh	18
	Munster	18
10.	Treviso	17
11.	Glasgow	14
12.	Blues	13

ummm, wrote: Italian ref this week, Mitrea, seems to be being fast tracked by the Pro12, made his debut last season but already has 13 matches under his belt.

Romanian ref working under Italian Federation, he made his debut in one of our first matches last year and was comically, stupendously inept (shout from Clan, after the please-don't-go-on-the-pitch-announcment: "But we swear we won't touch him"). Saw him on the box reffing an Ulster match recently and he'd improved beyond belief.

I don't have time to chat, here's the short and sweet:

We're down one, but still looking healthy. Italian ref this week, Mitrea, seems to be being fast tracked by the Pro12, made his debut last season but already has 13 matches under his belt.

Week 10

	Team	Average ref experience (in games)
1.	Ulster	42
2.	Scarlets	31
3.	Connacht	29
4.	Ospreys	27
5.	Dragons	26
6.	Zebre	22
7.	Edinburgh	19
8.	Treviso	18
	Leinster	18
10.	Munster	17
11.	Glasgow	15
12.	Blues	14

menacethedenis wrote: Greg Garner for the Biarritz home game. Didn't he ref our home game against Toulouse last year? Leighton Hodges for the away trip.

Garner reffed the home Toulouse game, also reffed us in Spain against El Salvador some years ago.

Hodges reffed us in the (HEC) away game at Zebre, and away to Gloucester last year.

Greg Garner for the Biarritz home game. Didn't he ref our home game against Toulouse last year? Leighton Hodges for the away trip.

www.ercrugby.com/eng/news/19644.php#.ULNuU4d0C4h

It's Tuesday, which can only mean one thing, the ref stats are out.

With the international season upon us the Owens & Clancys are away, so many teams are getting less experienced refs this weekend, and we're not spared. But Vivarini made his debut last year in the same fixture and we won, so we like him

On the face of it, Munster look the hardest done by with a rookie ref taking charge of their Scarlets match, but no, it's a French ref with 30 Top 14 matches under his belt.

Still, we're looking rather healthy in second place.

Dragons v Connacht: Giuseppe Vivarini (FIR, 4th competition game)
Munster v Scarlets: Laurent Cardona (FFR, 1st competition game)
Treviso v Ulster: Peter Allan (SRU, 49th competition game)
Glasgow v Leinster: Neil Hennessey (WRU, 13th competition game)
Edinburgh v Ospreys: David Wilkinson (IRFU, 16th competition game)
Zebre v Blues: Leo Colgan (IRFU, 9th competition game)


Week 9

	Team	Average ref experience (in games)
1.	Ulster	42
2.	Connacht	30
	Scarlets	30
4.	Dragons	27
	Ospreys	27
6.	Zebre	23
7.	Edinburgh	20
8	Treviso	19
9.	Leinster	18
	Munster	18
11.	Glasgow	16
12.	Blues	13

Couple of missed weeks, sorry about that. But we're up to date and looking very healthy.

Ulster make a big jump, Owens is in charge of their game against Edinburgh.

This week is only the 3rd week in 8 rounds where the refs all have experience in double digits.

Connacht v Treviso: Leighton Hodges (WRU, 21st competition game)
Ulster v Edinburgh: Nigel Owens (WRU, 88th competition game)
Blues v Munster: Andrew McMenemy (SRU, 16th competition game)
Ospreys v Leinster: John Lacey (IRFU, 24th competition game)
Glasgow v Dragons: Marius Mitrea (FIR, 13th competition game)
Scarlets v Zebre: Dudley Phillips (IRFU, 29th competition game)

	Team	Average ref experience (in games)
1.	Ulster	41
2.	Connacht	34
3.	Scarlets	33
4.	Dragons	30
5.	Ospreys	29
6.	Zebre	22
7.	Edinburgh	21
	Munster	21
9.	Leinster	19
10.	Glasgow	17
11.	Treviso	15
12.	Blues	13

ummm or anyone for that matter,

When did Pro12 return to policy of appointing ref from away teams union and all other officials from home union? I see from above that its not always the case but imo it should never be the case either for refs or assistants. Its got huge potential for bringing the league into disrepute. The standard is poor anyway besides having officials from either side.
Its a poor policy and has the edinburgh crowd in arms tonight.

You are more than welcome to do your own analysis

ummm, wrote: Nigel Owens returns to ref Dragons & Scarlets, which of course means they shoot up the table.

I realise I may be instructing grandmother in the mastication of hen fruit, but does using the median referee experience even out the Owens factor?

Nigel Owens returns to ref Dragons & Scarlets, which of course means they shoot up the table. Another Irish derby gives Connacht a decent ref once more, I could get used to this.

Edinburgh might have been in the HEC semi last year, but their poor Pro12 showing is coming back to bite them.

Ulster v Connacht: George Clancy (IRFU, 49th competition game)
Leinster v Munster: Leighton Hodges (WRU, 20th competition game)
Blues v Warriors: Giuseppe Vivarini (FIR, 3rd competition game)
Zebre v Ospreys: Neil Paterson (SRU, 44th competition game)
Scarlets v Dragons: Nigel Owens (WRU, 87th competition game)
Edinburgh v Treviso: Matteo Liperini (FIR, 1st competition game)

	Team	Average ref experience (in games)
1.	Scarlets	38
2.	Connacht	33
3.	Ulster	32
4.	Dragons	31
5.	Ospreys	26
6.	Munster	23
	Zebre	23
8.	Leinster	20
9.	Glasgow	19
10.	Blues	15
	Treviso	15
12.	Edinburgh	11

menacethedenis wrote: Ah no is Fitzgibbon reffing on Friday? I genuinely think he has something against us...

No, he's just pants. I feel a little :sick: in my mouth when I think of him reffing us...

Ah no is Fitzgibbon reffing on Friday? I genuinely think he has something against us...

At the 5 game mark last year our ref experience was 7 games, bottom of the league.

Very hard to compare at this stage, though. Last year the first 5-6 weeks were during the RWC and there was a skeleton staff of refs. The likes of Rolland, Owens and Clancy weren't there to bump up the numbers.

In the first 5 weeks last year the average ref experience was 14 games. This year it's 22.

Also, Zebre's average is over 4 games, after the postponement of the Ulster match.

ummm, wrote: Week 5, and dare I say it it's beginning to look like moaning about refs has had a positive effect.

How does this compare with last year? We've moved up but Zebre are still down where Aironi were...