dobby wrote: I find this booing a fascinating discussion. Do we need to write a book of ethics for rugby supporters. Are we supposed to be the finest folks in the world. Can we not crib about anything. I think back to my days as a very younger player and the shower of abuse laid on by other folks about my performance as an underage player. It was staggering to be involved. I remember a mother of one of the other children on the team entering the field and hitting the referee on the head with an umbrella. And that is tame to what I have witnessed.

It absolutely morphs what evil-g would like in our community. I appreciate we should all be gentlemen. The annoyance by fans is nothing in comparison to what I have seen. I do appreciate what you would like evil-g. If I have ever seen tame it is with Connacht.. And lets just accept the Taute decision as well. Why not. So Pienaar or AJ got screwed by the IRFU, buts that's fine. Maybe provide the folks in stands with 'counter-balancing' medication. I have to admit, I have read enough of your drivel for the whole of 2017 and we are only a couple of days into it.

Dobby when you're throwing out crappy comments like that, why not hold a mirror up first eh...?
You think people don't think the same about some of the guff you post, or that they just choose not to post offensive comments to you in return.
I've been straight up with you regarding behaviour on here, and what would happen in light of another misdemeanor.

Time for a two week break methinks.......

I find this booing a fascinating discussion. Do we need to write a book of ethics for rugby supporters. Are we supposed to be the finest folks in the world. Can we not crib about anything. I think back to my days as a very younger player and the shower of abuse laid on by other folks about my performance as an underage player. It was staggering to be involved. I remember a mother of one of the other children on the team entering the field and hitting the referee on the head with an umbrella. And that is tame to what I have witnessed.

It absolutely morphs what evil-g would like in our community. I appreciate we should all be gentlemen. The annoyance by fans is nothing in comparison to what I have seen. I do appreciate what you would like evil-g. If I have ever seen tame it is with Connacht.. And lets just accept the Taute decision as well. Why not. So Pienaar or AJ got screwed by the IRFU, buts that's fine. Maybe provide the folks in stands with 'counter-balancing' medication. I have to admit, I have read enough of your drivel for the whole of 2017 and we are only a couple of days into it.

Overall, the quality of officialdom in the Pro12 has been an issue for an age, in my view. Like others prior have said, I don't believe for a moment there is bias....it's more an issue of quality, experience and a lack of teamwork across the officials present. In general, the touch judges look generally switched off, don't want to get involved much and this might have to do with the Pro12 policy of continuing with the appointment of local country refereeing teams, presumably to keep costs lower. I think this does not help the referee. Dudley had a poor evening last week as did his team, but he wouldn't be the first and Lord knows he won't be the last. I felt though we were our own worst enemy on the night with too many errors and difficulty in getting our process and systems right - to be fair it must be super hard with the soggy night that was in it combined with ALL of the changes the team is having to deal with. I'd still rather be a Connacht fan above all/everyone else, regardless of current results.

Big D.P. wrote:

Fast twitch wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

No excuse for foul mouth insults but you have to acknowledge the frustration the supporters feel with a very poor refereeing display.
Dudley Philips may not have received the backup expected from the other officials but he allowed himself to be cynically manipulated by a well prepared Munster. He spent the entire match coaching the scrum (yellow on 70mins for persistent scrum infringement). The 1st half penalty against Tom McCartney for side entry in the Maul went unpunished on several occasions when Munster did likewise.
Jack O'Donoghue tackled from an offside position to begin the turnover which led to their try. Again no whistle despite Muldoon pointing out the offence (total frustration was all he got from his chats with Dudley Philips). When they turned us over 2 phases later Phillips immediately called advantage (for tackler not rolling away?) which gave Keatley a free play to try the crossfield kick and began the sequence to score their try. I know Adeolokun could have done better to either challenge in the air or tackle Conway (O'Halloran missed as well) but it ensured a huge swing in momentum from us to them and ultimately proved the difference on the scoreboard.
James Cronin was penalised for 2 high tackles but several other Munster players were happy to do likewise safe in the knowledge that it would go unpunished or else "just a penalty, careful next time".
Late hits on Jack Carty after kicking were part of the Munster plan as he was our only recognised kicker but again it was a case of nothing to see here from Dudley Philips and his Assistants.
The final minutes were just ridiculous. Our efforts to quickly tap and run a penalty were twice thwarted by a Munster tackler having not retreating 10 metres and yet Dudley Phillips didn't react to this blatant challenge to his authority. No whistle, no advancing of the penalty 10 metres further, no warning to Munster.
Meanwhile the 4th Official (the guy who does substitutions and sin bins) became bamboozled by the Munster players and proceded to allow Dave Kilcoyne to re-enter the pitch despite the fact that he was unable to complete the sin bin in the 80 minutes and so shouldn't have rejoined he match. Simultaneously Jack O'Donoghue runs back on despite the fact that James Cronin (who temporarily replaced him to allow scrums) didn't depart. The 4th Official could see something was wrong, he even took a step onto the pitch, then checkd with the linesman. Neither alerted the Referee to the fact that Munster were playing 15 when he had issued 2 yellow cards which should have left them at 13. In addition Duncan Williams ambled off the field so slowly that if Connacht managed a line break they may very well have collided into him.
Would other referees allow their authority to be so cynically undermined? Most wouldn't restart the match until they were sure the correct numbers were on the pitch. They would also remind the offending team about who is in charge and the consequences of any further infringements.
Now as a witness to this one sided, inept, cynicism promoting affair do you honestly expect people to offer it up and hold their tongues?
Fans have 2 options; make some noise or walk away.
I have no problem with booing foul play, or farcical refereeing decisions.
I don't believe personal abuse of players or officials is acceptable.
People should remember that Kids are present and watch their language.
There certainly isn't constant booing from the Clan Stand.
In fact the best line of the night was a quiet moment when one voice announced: "Touch Judge needed over here".
Enough said!

I'm not at all sure that's a fair and balanced comment.

Yes the ref/4th official made an error, but we've had a bad decision help us against Wasps recently too don't forget.

Sure Munster were streetwise and lived close to the edge, but Connacht are no angels either. We got away with plenty too.

That ref is a poor quality official imho but he wasn't biased, so mistakes tend to balance out.

p.s. The booing was terrible and regardless of where it wasn't from it happened a lot.

In the Bad Refereeing balance sheet Connacht have so much more on the debit side to outweigh a miraculous favourable refereeing error vs Wasps in the credit column (only hamstring injury I've ever smiled at).
Apologies for unloading my accumulated anti-referee baggage from underage, schools, social touch and tag rugby etc.. in the above post.
I'll cheer Connacht louder next time I hear booing from the Clan Stand. Perhaps it will catch on!
It's hard to return to being philosophical about these things after such a successful season in 2015/16 but Pat Lam did say the theme for this season is Humility so I'll add it to my seasonal list.
I won't say I'm looking forward to John Lacey in charge at the Liberty Stadium next week however, as I felt he strangled the life out of the Leinster vs Ulster match last Saturday.

Fast twitch wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

No excuse for foul mouth insults but you have to acknowledge the frustration the supporters feel with a very poor refereeing display.
Dudley Philips may not have received the backup expected from the other officials but he allowed himself to be cynically manipulated by a well prepared Munster. He spent the entire match coaching the scrum (yellow on 70mins for persistent scrum infringement). The 1st half penalty against Tom McCartney for side entry in the Maul went unpunished on several occasions when Munster did likewise.
Jack O'Donoghue tackled from an offside position to begin the turnover which led to their try. Again no whistle despite Muldoon pointing out the offence (total frustration was all he got from his chats with Dudley Philips). When they turned us over 2 phases later Phillips immediately called advantage (for tackler not rolling away?) which gave Keatley a free play to try the crossfield kick and began the sequence to score their try. I know Adeolokun could have done better to either challenge in the air or tackle Conway (O'Halloran missed as well) but it ensured a huge swing in momentum from us to them and ultimately proved the difference on the scoreboard.
James Cronin was penalised for 2 high tackles but several other Munster players were happy to do likewise safe in the knowledge that it would go unpunished or else "just a penalty, careful next time".
Late hits on Jack Carty after kicking were part of the Munster plan as he was our only recognised kicker but again it was a case of nothing to see here from Dudley Philips and his Assistants.
The final minutes were just ridiculous. Our efforts to quickly tap and run a penalty were twice thwarted by a Munster tackler having not retreating 10 metres and yet Dudley Phillips didn't react to this blatant challenge to his authority. No whistle, no advancing of the penalty 10 metres further, no warning to Munster.
Meanwhile the 4th Official (the guy who does substitutions and sin bins) became bamboozled by the Munster players and proceded to allow Dave Kilcoyne to re-enter the pitch despite the fact that he was unable to complete the sin bin in the 80 minutes and so shouldn't have rejoined he match. Simultaneously Jack O'Donoghue runs back on despite the fact that James Cronin (who temporarily replaced him to allow scrums) didn't depart. The 4th Official could see something was wrong, he even took a step onto the pitch, then checkd with the linesman. Neither alerted the Referee to the fact that Munster were playing 15 when he had issued 2 yellow cards which should have left them at 13. In addition Duncan Williams ambled off the field so slowly that if Connacht managed a line break they may very well have collided into him.
Would other referees allow their authority to be so cynically undermined? Most wouldn't restart the match until they were sure the correct numbers were on the pitch. They would also remind the offending team about who is in charge and the consequences of any further infringements.
Now as a witness to this one sided, inept, cynicism promoting affair do you honestly expect people to offer it up and hold their tongues?
Fans have 2 options; make some noise or walk away.
I have no problem with booing foul play, or farcical refereeing decisions.
I don't believe personal abuse of players or officials is acceptable.
People should remember that Kids are present and watch their language.
There certainly isn't constant booing from the Clan Stand.
In fact the best line of the night was a quiet moment when one voice announced: "Touch Judge needed over here".
Enough said!

I'm not at all sure that's a fair and balanced comment.

Yes the ref/4th official made an error, but we've had a bad decision help us against Wasps recently too don't forget.

Sure Munster were streetwise and lived close to the edge, but Connacht are no angels either. We got away with plenty too.

That ref is a poor quality official imho but he wasn't biased, so mistakes tend to balance out.

p.s. The booing was terrible and regardless of where it wasn't from it happened a lot.

connachta wrote:

phatguerilla wrote:
The lineout has improved marginally but if this pace of improvement continues it will be too little to salvage anything from this season. Likewise open field play is getting more and more lacklustre.

I know injuries and departures have played a big part but at some stage that can't continue to be the excuse. Aly's been gone for more than 15 games now, the team has to get over that somehow, whether that's Muldoon calling the lineout, two man lineouts, thirteen man lineouts, the means doesn't matter so much as long we get a solid platform again. The maul has to improve as well.

As for injuries, that was mainly a first choice team, bar 10/12/13 perhaps and even at that they were probably all second choice, so when facing a Munster team with 10-12 changes to their first choice and a shortened turn around, that can't really be an excuse. Maybe there are too many walking wounded on the field which is having an impact on ability to protect the ball etc .

Can't agree more I've said all week that even with only barely 25 players available, 13-14 of them are 1st choice guys or close to

Injury is more of a correct excuse in the meaning of disruption in the squad. You must add to that late arrivals.
It means some guys are overused (Carty, Buckley Bealham and above all Muldoon) for 2 months
no continuity to build on for some and no rest for others... That's the issue. It should be a bit better after 2 more weeks, before Toulouse. Fingers Crossed

Agreed that the rate of improvement of the lineout really should be improving more dramatically. Munsters lineout was far more solid even though they had a completely reshaped team out. If there is one thing that can be worked on this week the lineout can be focused on, indeed should be worked on, as there are too few players available to work on much else. As for working on the maul this week, well other than discussing it, I can't see how else it can be worked on. There are simply too few players available and the last thing you want is more injuries during training to add to the problem. Agreed that open field looks very lacklustre. Kieran does try and mix it up. Thought the penalty advantage when Jack kicked the ball across to Matt showed a bit of inventiveness. Problem is that Jack only did this because of the penalty advantage. In his defence he did pick out Dani with a similar kick during the Wasps game. Problem is we don't see this often enough. No usage of open space, and simply tight lateral play means we are very easy to defend against. And when you have a lot of tired bodies against a lot of fresh bodies its fairly clear who's going to win that battle. You could see the absolute frustration etched across the face of Quinn Roux after the Munster try. Having worked so hard to get the ball into the Munster 22, only to have it snaffled and then moved the length of the pitch. This is exactly what we were doing to teams last year. This year its just a huge grind and it is taking its toll.

As for having close to a first choice starting 15 available, I don't see that being much of an advantage. Take , for example, that some of these will be in Irish camp this week. This only means that there is even less of an opportunity to solve issues before the game on Saturday. We don't have enough players to do proper training, so all Pat can do is sit and discuss the problems with the players. That is not ideal.

As for the Taute decision. That is a strange one and not the IRFUs finest hour. There simply cannot be one rule for some and a different rule for others. Connacht and Ulster have a right to feel aggrieved. That said the multitude of players signing on once again with Connacht this year is a credit to the IRFU. The IRFU is a strange beast. Many could have seen Munster obliterated this year so they spent a fortune on the province to kick it back into shape. They did much the same with Connacht, in supporting Pat with the purchase of the likes of Bundee, Tom, Mils, Jake etc.. They just seem to have an issue getting the balance right.

Moving forward for Connacht this year will be a struggle. A decimated squad, unable to properly train because of this, losing our internationals soon enough, all this is hurting and going to hurt more. I figure the Toulouse game will likely make or break the season for us. If we come out of this game with qualification secured for the quarter finals it will lift the heads. We can then kick-on and aim to make the play-off places for next years cup. Of course we should fight for automatic qualification but with so many injuries we have to be realistic with our expectations.

Edit: I do not expect us to get a result next weekend. As such I think our focus has to be on the two following weeks. With that in mind I would be happy to see as many players as possible stood down this weekend. The guys need the rest. But more than that they don't need another mental and physical beating with the following two weeks being so crucial to their season

[edit] Never mind.

I see Taute has signed up for the rest of the season for Munster, so they have 2 NIQ's in the same position, so there's no rules just a case by case basis, a bit ironic that we couldn't keep AJ since he was an Irish NIQ and now we only have 1 fit out-half. Ulster must be fuming also

phatguerilla wrote:
The lineout has improved marginally but if this pace of improvement continues it will be too little to salvage anything from this season. Likewise open field play is getting more and more lacklustre.

I know injuries and departures have played a big part but at some stage that can't continue to be the excuse. Aly's been gone for more than 15 games now, the team has to get over that somehow, whether that's Muldoon calling the lineout, two man lineouts, thirteen man lineouts, the means doesn't matter so much as long we get a solid platform again. The maul has to improve as well.

As for injuries, that was mainly a first choice team, bar 10/12/13 perhaps and even at that they were probably all second choice, so when facing a Munster team with 10-12 changes to their first choice and a shortened turn around, that can't really be an excuse. Maybe there are too many walking wounded on the field which is having an impact on ability to protect the ball etc .

Can't agree more I've said all week that even with only barely 25 players available, 13-14 of them are 1st choice guys or close to

Injury is more of a correct excuse in the meaning of disruption in the squad. You must add to that late arrivals.
It means some guys are overused (Carty, Buckley Bealham and above all Muldoon) for 2 months
And in the same times guys are missing gametime to fit in 100% into the team/gameplan
- Dawai (3 games on the bench)
- Cannon (only started 4 games)
- Nepia (same)
- Ili (same)
- Robb (even fewer)
- SOB (mostly benched)
- Parata (unused till December)
- Poolman (cameos then out of position then out again)
- Heenan (back and out again, no continuity to build on)

no continuity to build on for some and no rest for others... That's the issue. It should be a bit better after 2 more weeks, before Toulouse. Fingers Crossed

I missed the final 10 minutes or so when my connection dropped, perhaps I was better off as I'm getting frustrated just reading about it.

While Munster's playing on the edge of the rules had more than a little to do with the final scoreline, Connacht ultimately need to be looking at themselves right now.

In the first season or two of Lam's time, even when not winning games, Connacht were absolutely clinical in the opposition 22. We regularly saw games where two-three visits to their 22 brought two to three tries. Now it looks like it takes six or seven attempts before we can trouble the opposition. It could be that teams failed to prepare for Connacht and now everyone is aware of the Connacht gameplan, but that can't be an excuse.

The lineout has improved marginally but if this pace of improvement continues it will be too little to salvage anything from this season. Likewise open field play is getting more and more lacklustre.

I know injuries and departures have played a big part but at some stage that can't continue to be the excuse. Aly's been gone for more than 15 games now, the team has to get over that somehow, whether that's Muldoon calling the lineout, two man lineouts, thirteen man lineouts, the means doesn't matter so much as long we get a solid platform again. The maul has to improve as well.

As for injuries, that was mainly a first choice team, bar 10/12/13 perhaps and even at that they were probably all second choice, so when facing a Munster team with 10-12 changes to their first choice and a shortened turn around, that can't really be an excuse. Maybe there are too many walking wounded on the field which is having an impact on ability to protect the ball etc but if that's the case Lam has to come out and say that. In the past he's been really good at playing to the IRFU and not criticizing the way MOC did, but now that he's leaving anyways, for his own sake he should be making this clear. He's already said they can't train the scrum, tackling, etc, so he's not shy of letting the opposition know what sort of situation Connacht are in.

Right now Connacht are being led by the process rather than the other way around. Don't get me wrong the process was responsible for last season, I'm not against it by any means, but its no longer clear what the process is. The best teams can win in more than one way, but going back to the lineout problems, we don't have another option if the wide game isn't working.

Fast twitch wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

No excuse for foul mouth insults but you have to acknowledge the frustration the supporters feel with a very poor refereeing display.
Dudley Philips may not have received the backup expected from the other officials but he allowed himself to be cynically manipulated by a well prepared Munster. He spent the entire match coaching the scrum (yellow on 70mins for persistent scrum infringement). The 1st half penalty against Tom McCartney for side entry in the Maul went unpunished on several occasions when Munster did likewise.
Jack O'Donoghue tackled from an offside position to begin the turnover which led to their try. Again no whistle despite Muldoon pointing out the offence (total frustration was all he got from his chats with Dudley Philips). When they turned us over 2 phases later Phillips immediately called advantage (for tackler not rolling away?) which gave Keatley a free play to try the crossfield kick and began the sequence to score their try. I know Adeolokun could have done better to either challenge in the air or tackle Conway (O'Halloran missed as well) but it ensured a huge swing in momentum from us to them and ultimately proved the difference on the scoreboard.
James Cronin was penalised for 2 high tackles but several other Munster players were happy to do likewise safe in the knowledge that it would go unpunished or else "just a penalty, careful next time".
Late hits on Jack Carty after kicking were part of the Munster plan as he was our only recognised kicker but again it was a case of nothing to see here from Dudley Philips and his Assistants.
The final minutes were just ridiculous. Our efforts to quickly tap and run a penalty were twice thwarted by a Munster tackler having not retreating 10 metres and yet Dudley Phillips didn't react to this blatant challenge to his authority. No whistle, no advancing of the penalty 10 metres further, no warning to Munster.
Meanwhile the 4th Official (the guy who does substitutions and sin bins) became bamboozled by the Munster players and proceded to allow Dave Kilcoyne to re-enter the pitch despite the fact that he was unable to complete the sin bin in the 80 minutes and so shouldn't have rejoined he match. Simultaneously Jack O'Donoghue runs back on despite the fact that James Cronin (who temporarily replaced him to allow scrums) didn't depart. The 4th Official could see something was wrong, he even took a step onto the pitch, then checkd with the linesman. Neither alerted the Referee to the fact that Munster were playing 15 when he had issued 2 yellow cards which should have left them at 13. In addition Duncan Williams ambled off the field so slowly that if Connacht managed a line break they may very well have collided into him.
Would other referees allow their authority to be so cynically undermined? Most wouldn't restart the match until they were sure the correct numbers were on the pitch. They would also remind the offending team about who is in charge and the consequences of any further infringements.
Now as a witness to this one sided, inept, cynicism promoting affair do you honestly expect people to offer it up and hold their tongues?
Fans have 2 options; make some noise or walk away.
I have no problem with booing foul play, or farcical refereeing decisions.
I don't believe personal abuse of players or officials is acceptable.
People should remember that Kids are present and watch their language.
There certainly isn't constant booing from the Clan Stand.
In fact the best line of the night was a quiet moment when one voice announced: "Touch Judge needed over here".
Enough said!

I completely agree with the above. I was in the Clan and the booing I heard was all in response to poor refereeing decisions or cynical Munster play. While I certainly heard groans of frustration after some of our mistakes there was definitely no booing of our players. It is also worth remembering that you get a different sort of crowd for the. Christmas interpros with a lot more casual or irregular supporters who mightn'thave the same knowledge of the game. I wouldn't worry about our soul yet. I'd be more worried about our complete inability to protect our own ball every time we make a break which seems to have crept in over the last 4 or 5 games.

Evil_g wrote:

The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

No excuse for foul mouth insults but you have to acknowledge the frustration the supporters feel with a very poor refereeing display.
Dudley Philips may not have received the backup expected from the other officials but he allowed himself to be cynically manipulated by a well prepared Munster. He spent the entire match coaching the scrum (yellow on 70mins for persistent scrum infringement). The 1st half penalty against Tom McCartney for side entry in the Maul went unpunished on several occasions when Munster did likewise.
Jack O'Donoghue tackled from an offside position to begin the turnover which led to their try. Again no whistle despite Muldoon pointing out the offence (total frustration was all he got from his chats with Dudley Philips). When they turned us over 2 phases later Phillips immediately called advantage (for tackler not rolling away?) which gave Keatley a free play to try the crossfield kick and began the sequence to score their try. I know Adeolokun could have done better to either challenge in the air or tackle Conway (O'Halloran missed as well) but it ensured a huge swing in momentum from us to them and ultimately proved the difference on the scoreboard.
James Cronin was penalised for 2 high tackles but several other Munster players were happy to do likewise safe in the knowledge that it would go unpunished or else "just a penalty, careful next time".
Late hits on Jack Carty after kicking were part of the Munster plan as he was our only recognised kicker but again it was a case of nothing to see here from Dudley Philips and his Assistants.
The final minutes were just ridiculous. Our efforts to quickly tap and run a penalty were twice thwarted by a Munster tackler having not retreating 10 metres and yet Dudley Phillips didn't react to this blatant challenge to his authority. No whistle, no advancing of the penalty 10 metres further, no warning to Munster.
Meanwhile the 4th Official (the guy who does substitutions and sin bins) became bamboozled by the Munster players and proceded to allow Dave Kilcoyne to re-enter the pitch despite the fact that he was unable to complete the sin bin in the 80 minutes and so shouldn't have rejoined he match. Simultaneously Jack O'Donoghue runs back on despite the fact that James Cronin (who temporarily replaced him to allow scrums) didn't depart. The 4th Official could see something was wrong, he even took a step onto the pitch, then checkd with the linesman. Neither alerted the Referee to the fact that Munster were playing 15 when he had issued 2 yellow cards which should have left them at 13. In addition Duncan Williams ambled off the field so slowly that if Connacht managed a line break they may very well have collided into him.
Would other referees allow their authority to be so cynically undermined? Most wouldn't restart the match until they were sure the correct numbers were on the pitch. They would also remind the offending team about who is in charge and the consequences of any further infringements.
Now as a witness to this one sided, inept, cynicism promoting affair do you honestly expect people to offer it up and hold their tongues?
Fans have 2 options; make some noise or walk away.
I have no problem with booing foul play, or farcical refereeing decisions.
I don't believe personal abuse of players or officials is acceptable.
People should remember that Kids are present and watch their language.
There certainly isn't constant booing from the Clan Stand.
In fact the best line of the night was a quiet moment when one voice announced: "Touch Judge needed over here".
Enough said!

Big D.P. wrote:

Evil_g wrote: The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

My spot is on the main stand- we heard the booing and jeering and were shocked that our team should receive such treatment, then we thought maybe Munster was on the receiving end and were embarrassed, finally decided it was the officials and thought how gracious Wasps were when at the receiving end of a bad ref decision.. brings shame on the supporters...

Evil_g wrote: The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

I sadly have to agree with that. We will be increasingly seen as a bunch of poor losers/louts. The offenders should be identified and ejected.

Evil_g wrote: The non stop booing throughout the game and after the final whistle by a large section of the crowd was embarrassing last night and has been for some time now.

As was the foul mouthed, uninformed, vitriol directed towards one particular Connacht player, a number of Munster players, and the officials, by more than a handful of people in my section of the clan.

"Part and parcel of the professional game". "I pay for my ticket so I can say what I like". It's never been part and parcel of rugby. And I wouldn't like to bring a kid to Sportsground if this keeps up.

Also, no one who has half a clue about rugby would single our only fit outhalf out for criticism last night. We really need an ignore function on here.

The booing and shouting that I saw was geared towards the ref and 4th official for allowing Munster play 15 players. When it should have been 13 players.

I would find it stranged that any true Connacht fan would boo their own players. If this is true I would be the first to condame it.

I would not fault any player for our lost last night.
The fact was Munster had their homework done and their defence was brilliant.
We had chances to score several times and we did not take those chances which is very worrying, as this has happened in several matches now Ulster, wasp.
If we do not fix this we will not beat tolouse away.

In injury time we had ball in hand about 10metres from our own line. Keatley was the only Mun player as last defence. He was a further 10metres behind his team mates to the Clan side of the pitch. I don't understand why a kick behind with a foot race to the ball would not be used at this point. Worse case is that Mun player gets it in own half and surely boots it into the stand. A footrace between Healy, Niyi TOH etc and a Munster player retreating would surely be at least 50/50 call with minimal risk. We had little chance of getting over the gainline at this point as the previous minute had shown.

Some ref decisions seemed bad. Can't tell before seeing replay. Didn't hear any Conn player being abused. I did roar at Williams when he dumped Marmion and towards officials for missing that and the furore at the end with the subs/bin on off. I don't see that as a problem.

Our execution in critical areas again let us down, collectively.