There are lots of things that need to be improved/changed on this league if it is to become the product it can be and needs to be. The allocation of match officials would be very high up the list. Unfortunately the irfu( according to David moffett) have been resistant to any and all change thus far.

connachtcl wrote: Does nobody else think we got a very favourable penalty at the end of the first half? Clancy called that the ball was out of the ruck then penalised a Leinster player for going off their when diving on it.
Thought Clancy had a decent game apart from the Heaslip incident.

On the night I thought Clancy was very poor, and having watched the game back my opinion hasn't changed. I've seen that penalty discussed on another forum, and what I think happned is he gave us a soft penalty because in the back of his mind he realised he should have penalised the Leinster prop for diving at Marmion with his head in a dangerous fashion shortly beforehand, but at the time he had said that was ok.

Regarding the refereeing in general, Dave Finn posted audio from a press conference with Pat Lam, where he talks about the referreeing of the game, and refereeing in the pro 12 in general. Here's the link:




One interesting comment regarding the Leintser game was apparently the citing commissioner agreed it should have been a yellow. His thoughts on how to improve the refereeing make a lot of sense in my opinion. As Dave Finn said himself of twitter since, if another provincial coach had made similar suggestions they'd have gotten loads of press in the national media, but there has been no coverage of Pat's comments that I've seen anyway.

Does nobody else think we got a very favourable penalty at the end of the first half? Clancy called that the ball was out of the ruck then penalised a Leinster player for going off their when diving on it.
Thought Clancy had a decent game apart from the Heaslip incident.

Clancy can turn round and say that it was the TMO who decided to keep Heaslip on and that the pass was not forward....... because it was.

The beauty of buck passing. I think Nigel Owens needs to do a master class cause refs are getting worse.

OldSchool wrote: Please correct if I am wrong!

The ref has the final say on all calls, if there is a big screen he is allowed to use the replay and make his own decision and take the appropriate action

You are correct, but very few refs do that. The odd one does look at the screen and tells the TMO that it is ok, that they have seen it themselves etc mostly on trivia or small things, when it comes to major decisions, sending people off or try scored, they let the TMO decide.

Clancy can turn round and say that it was the TMO who decided to keep Heaslip on and that the pass was not forward....... because it was.

Please correct if I am wrong!

The ref has the final say on all calls, if there is a big screen he is allowed to use the replay and make his own decision and take the appropriate action

I'm not sure if anyone saw a proper mother of a forward pass in the Toulouse vs Clermont match this weekend. It is on Top 14 site, Huget made a break, looped a pass inside which went at least one metre if not two metres forward, bouncing on the 5 metre line well ahead of the thrower. Medard scored. Ref went to TMO who amazingly allowed it...nuts. The explanation was that the ball was thrown backwards but landed forwards. Huh? Chicken George, all is forgiven....well almost. I'll see if I can find a link.

I don't agree with Stephen Jones on much (or anything really) but I think he nailed it in an article recently about forward passes. Not particularly referring to last Saturday but in general forward passes are being effectively ignored and unless its ridulously forward they just aren't being given. It may help the flow of the game to some extent but I don't think it helps the game overall and just leads to more frustration.

Rolland used the phrase clear and obvious twice in the ulster v Munster game Friday also

phatguerilla wrote: whiffofcordite.com/2014/01/06/clear-and-obvious/

WOC did a blog about this issue today, seems like it might be a new directive and it came about at exactly the wrong moment for us. Really unfortunate but at least Clancy didn't come up with the phrase on his own I was raging when I heard him use those words. There are probably plenty of others out there that heard him say it, felt hard done by and thought the ref was doing everything they could to give the game to Leinster, but then this week didn't read this forum or the above blog and realise it wasn't actually his fault. Its one of those things that feeds into the idea of an anti-Connacht bias as Rogue said.

It would seem that the benefit of the doubt is going with the attacking team. As fans this should be seen as a positive, generally speaking. But as fans of the team with an awful attacking record the chances of us getting the same rub of the green are slim.

up to us to fix that.

whiffofcordite.com/2014/01/06/clear-and-obvious/

WOC did a blog about this issue today, seems like it might be a new directive and it came about at exactly the wrong moment for us. Really unfortunate but at least Clancy didn't come up with the phrase on his own I was raging when I heard him use those words. There are probably plenty of others out there that heard him say it, felt hard done by and thought the ref was doing everything they could to give the game to Leinster, but then this week didn't read this forum or the above blog and realise it wasn't actually his fault. Its one of those things that feeds into the idea of an anti-Connacht bias as Rogue said.

Watching the Leiceser/Bath game, a very very similar incident to Darcy's try happened. Again, it was referred to the TMO with the same wording from the on-field referee (implying a new refereeing directive) and the TMO gave the same decision as in Galway.

Either the refereeing organizations are getting extremely consistent, or they are all equally terrible!

Like others I've grown tired of posters commenting on poor reffing after every game, it's like complaining about the weather at this stage, but fully agree that Clancy and crew dropped the ball on the two biggest calls. It just feeds into the perceived bias that Connacht is hard done by the refs during every interpro. This was especially the case with the try. Clancy seemed to have a very strong suspicion himself that the pass was forward, but instead of waving it off himself went up to the TMO. Not sure what angle the TMO was looking at, but every replay I saw pretty clearly showed Gopperth's pass going forward to D'Arcy.

Considering Connacht didn't score a point in the second half they probably didn't deserve anything better than a LBP, but the thing that helps put teams in the top half of the table is winning games their play dictates they have no business winning. Heaslip not seeing yellow and counting D'Arcy's try insured that wasn't going to be the case for Connacht.

In sport when you are playing well and the score is tight the adrenaline and the little things that are in the back of your mind tend to keep the positive notes going.
Then there is a blatant knock on in the scrum Leinster go forward a couple of yards get a penalty and suddenly against the odds are 9-8 in front, and this is after a blatant yellow card offence. Suddenly things are going against you and your mind thoughts start to change as now you are wondering about those little 50 50 calls are going to go against you.
Then we bring someone on who no longer has the mental aptitude to control a game without kicking the ball away and the head has to start thinking again about how do i play the game now.
Leinster were not a better team and there were times in the set pieces that showed that Connacht can play and take on anybody. Then the nail in the coffin the forward pass that even the commentators were astounded with the answer. It is not conclusive, the TMO said, hold on it was forward or not, How do you get not conclusive in a pass.
It is good to see that Connacht are ready to give the youth from the Academy a chance. And this is what they should do. If you want to play the expansive game then you need these kids who have the ball skills and youthful zest to achieve these goals.

Creedence wrote: I hate seeing fans of losing sides I support blame the ref, nevermind booing him, but in this instance I think it is justified. Clancy was a chicken on the night and we deserve better. As for booing Heaslip, I don't see the point in that. He exploited a weak ref and dragged his side to a win. This was supposed to be a game to be won by the allstars in the Leinster backline. When (Darcy aside) they failed to do anything it was up to their pack to grind out the win. Will the same folks boo Heaslip if he gets away with doing that to Owen Farrell in a few weeks?

Yep absolutely I'd say, personally if he's stupid enough to go for a yellow cardable late cheap shot in a 6N game with his team already in the lead, I wouldn't want him in the squad frankly...

Creedence wrote: Will the same folks boo Heaslip if he gets away with doing that to Owen Farrell in a few weeks?

I expect they would because he'd get a yellow card straight away if he did that in a test match.