Brilliant UMMM well done, look forward to hearig the reply

That will all depend on their reply!

Hope you CC'd the likes of Thornley, Johnny Watterson and HUgh Farraley just for the Craic... :whistle:

In order for the league to be seen to be operating on a level playing field for all teams I believe it needs to revisit it's process by which officials are selected for matches. Every team should feel that they are seen as equals in the eyes of the league, regardless of the opinions of TV execs and journalists.

While teams at the bottom of the league may not be fighting for honours they are fighting for the chance for increased sponsorship and funding that a higher table placing will bring. In Aironi's case they were even fighting for survival. Those teams, and their fans, have just as much right to expect a decent level of officiating in their matches.

So, with all that said. Are you willing to do something about this?

I think this is unacceptable. As I say, I can almost understand favouritism from a union, but not from the leagues governing body.

I know fans can be paranoid, biased, quick to discover conspiracy theories and a whole lot more, but it's hard to look at the stats and not come to the conclusion that the league itself is biased in favour of certain teams when it comes to assigning officials. Maybe not intentionally biased, but the bias is still evident.

Ha the mail is too big, I need to split it up

On Tuesday the RaboDirect Pro12 site published their previews for the penultimate round of the league.

Immediately after I rather angrily accused the Pro12 of 'taking the piss' on twitter. I shouldn't have done that, my apologies, but at this stage I'm very frustrated at how the refereeing appointments have been handled by the league all season.

I fully accept that not all teams are created equal. Some have bigger budgets, some are favoured by their home unions, some have wealthy sponsors. But one thing I would have hoped would be that the league would treat each of its participating teams equally. Unfortunately this does not seem to be the case.

I also understand fully that new refs need to start somewhere, but from looking at the statistics certain teams are more likely to have those referees. As if those teams are used as a proving ground, almost as if their matches do not matter.

For the third time this season Connacht Rugby will play a match officiated by a referee making his tournament debut. Connacht have had two rookie referees in the past three rounds. And we're not alone. The Dragons had a rookie two weeks in succession. Aironi have only had 4 matches all season where the official had more than 25 games experience.

In the meantime the referees in charge of Munster matches for weeks 19, 20 and 21 are and were Nigel Owens (twice) and Allain Rolland. A combinded Pro12 experience of 217 games. Nigel Owens has 85 Pro12 games under his but has never taken charge of a Pro12 game in Galway, on the other hand he has been in charge of 3 Munster matches this season.

This season Munster have averaged referees with 34 games experience, the Ospreys 31. In contrast Aironi and Connacht are averaging 15 games, a full 10 games below the league average of 25.

For some reason this software won't let me post the mail. I'll keep trying

great stuff.

Once it's done I'll post it here as well. I'll also pick out the more sensible points raised here by others

ummm, wrote: Been super busy at work, haven't replied yet. Don't want to send a half arsed mail, want to make sure it's done right.

Good man, give them no wiggle room.... :evil:

Been super busy at work, haven't replied yet. Don't want to send a half arsed mail, want to make sure it's done right.

Well ummm any reply from Rabo yet ??

well in the player profiles you have a breakdown of the games that the player has played in for the current season, so why not extend that to include refereees? They already have ref profiles in place on the site, so would seem a logical extension...

I took you answered yourself there when you said it would be logical. That word doesn't seem to permeate the higher reaches of the Pro 12 must be the lack of oxygen...

connachtexile wrote: How about the Pro 12 set up a ref table were they rotate the refs so Owens etc referee the same number of teams per season with the exception of play offs? They could also introduce 3-4 new refs per season at the start of the season and let them earn their crust over the entire campaign rather than in the piecemeal fashion that there doing in the moment. They could also have another strata underneath that who would only be touch-judges for say 2 seasons were they'll learn their trade at the hands of Lewis, Owens etc so when in a year or two there ready to step up they should should have enough experience to make a smooth transition. That's off the top of my head but it shows it wouldn't be difficult to do if they sat down and bothered for two minutes to come up with some type of system.

You know any national journalist Ummm who you could pass your stats onto and embarrass them proper?

Well in the player profiles you have a breakdown of the games that the player has played in for the current season, so why not extend that to include refereees? They already have ref profiles in place on the site, so would seem a logical extension...

www.rabodirectpro12.com/teams/connacht/s...1&includeref=dynamic


www.rabodirectpro12.com/matchcentre/4270.php

How about the Pro 12 set up a ref table were they rotate the refs so Owens etc referee the same number of teams per season with the exception of play offs? They could also introduce 3-4 new refs per season at the start of the season and let them earn their crust over the entire campaign rather than in the piecemeal fashion that there doing in the moment. They could also have another strata underneath that who would only be touch-judges for say 2 seasons were they'll learn their trade at the hands of Lewis, Owens etc so when in a year or two there ready to step up they should should have enough experience to make a smooth transition. That's off the top of my head but it shows it wouldn't be difficult to do if they sat down and bothered for two minutes to come up with some type of system.

You know any national journalist Ummm who you could pass your stats onto and embarrass them proper?

Excellent work ummm, I love the fact that they have asked you to explain what you mean from "3rd debutant ref of the season". How much more to the point can you be?

Just to play devil's advocate for a second I guess the argument for the current system would go something along the lines of having the best officials to ref in the highest profile games.

Are we proposing an alternative lottery type system or are we arguing that the existing system needs to be caveated so that any team can not be given more than a certain number of - debutant / minimum level of experience - refs in any given season?