Thank Flip Club Rugby is Back

Isn't it just great. Club rugby is back up and running and there's a buzz about the place. Set aside the RWC for a few days and bring on the Pro12, the Jeff (Norwich Union Premiership) and the Top 14.

I'm loving it already

Delighted too. Just a shame I have to wait another two games till Dragons play at RP (stupid new stand )

Here here!!

I'm enjoying the build up. Hope we can manage the first week at least before some incident has us at each others throats

greybeard wrote:I'm enjoying the build up. Hope we can manage the first week at least before some incident has us at each others throats

+1

There'll be no major upsets. Cari is so besmitten with the Leinster boys she won't begrudge them a win. Munster will coast to victory over Dragons who accept their standing and won't kick up much of a sour grapes fuss. There isn't enough Glasgow fans to bemoan Ulster winning ans same with the Italians. If Scarlets or Blues lose all hell will break loose though.

I'm more excited about the domestic stuff than the world cup in a way. Can't believe it has come round so quickly.

Stag

I can't see Glasgow winning against Ulster but I would like to see them go at it hard. Want a big season out of young Weir

And most importanly, Peter Allan will not be in charge of a game this weeken

Yippee

Except the Blues game isnt on tv this week

But the rest of our september games are

So seriously inexperienced (at this level) ref's in the PR012 this week -
Ospreys v Leinster - Peter Fitzgibbon (IRFU) - 33rd match in the league
Ulster v Glasgow - Leighton Hodges (WRU) - 6th match
Edinburgh v Blues - Leo Coghlan (IRFU) - 2nd match
Trerviso v Connacjt - Dudley Philips (IRFU) - 16th match
Munster v Dragons - Stafano Penne (FIR) - 4th match
Scarlets v Aironi - Andrew Mcmenemy (SRU) - 6th match

Edinburgh v Blues - Leo Coghlan (IRFU) - 2nd match

Uh Oh....

Ospreys to win the Rab!

Staggy - half of Leinster's totty has gone to NZ!

An Italian ref. Well there's somebody who won't referee those cheating Munster sorts properly. Long evening in Cark for the Dragons then

I saw him referee recently (must have been a pre-season match) and I thought he was alright to be honest. Leo Coughlan that is. Do you have some dirt on him you'd like to share Stag?

Notch wrote:I saw him referee recently (must have been a pre-season match) and I thought he was alright to be honest. Leo Coughlan that is. Do you have some dirt on him you'd like to share Stag?

Is he not Leo Colgan? He reffed the Ulster v Quins game last weekend.

Notch wrote:I saw him referee recently (must have been a pre-season match) and I thought he was alright to be honest. Leo Coughlan that is. Do you have some dirt on him you'd like to share Stag?

To be fair, even a Irish ref on his 2nd League match would probably be better than some of the Scottish refs we have around...

I cant complain too much, since a bad ref will probably favour the most experienced forward pack...

Rava wrote:Is he not Leo Colgan? He reffed the Ulster v Quins game last weekend.

Rava - - It's COLGAN on the PRO12 site, that's where I got the info from (John Lacey was the original appointment) However, be afraid, be very afraid Assistant Referee: David Changleng,

Leo isn't a newbie. He's had quite a lot of involvement in Celtic League rugby as an assistant referee and got his first game last year. Lots of AIL experience. I rate him as a good ref.

Rava wrote:

Notch wrote:I saw him referee recently (must have been a pre-season match) and I thought he was alright to be honest. Leo Coughlan that is. Do you have some dirt on him you'd like to share Stag?

Is he not Leo Colgan? He reffed the Ulster v Quins game last weekend.

Thats the one. Missed a blatant knock-on for our first try like. But thats the way it goes when a team breaks out from their 22 and there's no TMO.

It is ridiculous that the TMO only exists for televised matches. Ok, I know that's what T stands for, but it means teams that have a televised match are given a better quality of officiating compared to teams whose matches aren't broadcast.

Great if you're Munster/Leinster/Ospreys, not so great if you're Aironi.

To be fair almost all matches are televised. I know that Aironi's matches will be recorded; I don't know if there will be a TMO.

It doesn't matter in a friendly.

If matches are recorded for highlights shows they don't have TMOs. At least that was the Magners way, maybe the Pro12 overlords will be more benevolent.

Just checked:

Edinburgh V Blues and Treviso V Connacht will not be televised and neither have TMOs. I think all four teams deserve the same level of officiating as the others, no?

It could be argued that it balances out over a season, but because some teams aren't big draws compared to others some teams have more televised matches compared to others. With the Pro12 just as much a proving ground for new refs it would make sense to provide a TMO at each match.

It would. Feel sorry for the Scots, Connacht and Italians. Every home game of the big three Irish provinces is televised. Pretty much the same for the big Welsh sides.

The gates for the two Scottish sides are poor. They would be even worse if every one of their home games was televised, especially against "poorer teams" (no diss intended).
I presume the TV coverage of the Ulster Glasgow game will be readily available in Scotland tomorrow night.

I know it's a bit of an unfair advantage but when you think about it the only way the TMO can work effectively is to have multiple cameras at both ends of the park to provide alternative angles of view on the try line. It would be incredibly expensive to provide this at every match and no-one's going to fund that. As it is, we've all seen situations where even the various angles have not provided strong evidence for the decision either way.

Guess it's just one of those things we have to accept for now.

I thought all of the Scottish sides games were being shown on BBC Alba now?

seriously so excited for the new season! Just finished writing up all the Scarlets' home games (apart from the LV ones) on my notice board, hoping to write large W's next to all the results (I'm aware that could be seen as being slightly delusional).

I am trying to ignore the fact that we have a very inexperienced Scottish ref for our first game, oh the things I could say ....

Come now Dreamer I thought you were above commenting on Scottish Refs

Rava wrote:The gates for the two Scottish sides are poor. They would be even worse if every one of their home games was televised, especially against "poorer teams" (no diss intended).
I presume the TV coverage of the Ulster Glasgow game will be readily available in Scotland tomorrow night.

It's on BBC Alba. A lot of their games are televised, just not as much as BBC NI, RTE/TG4 and BBC Wales invest in 'their teams'.

Rava wrote:Come now Dreamer I thought you were above commenting on Scottish Refs

well I do my best not to comment, most of the time anyway......