What a farce !!!!!

Look, I know people are going to jump on me for this, but seriously we need to sort out the joke that was reffing the Blues v Glasgow game last night. We need to try and showcase our young league and make it appeal to people who are not quite on board, but if I was one of those people and I decided to watch that game last night, I would have just walked away, why, because that ref last night was nothing but an ammature, how can you make such blatantly bad calls on such a regular accurance over eighty minutes, that ref last night totally ruined the game. Things like this need to be looked at because at the moment these incompetent refs are ruining our league.

I agree the ref was very very poor.

I sat down to watch Cardiff Blues v Glasgow Offsides expecting a decent game but it was totally ruined by the ref. There must have been a stoppage every 20 seconds.

Italian Ref at Edinburgh V Trevisio was comically bad apparently.

Obviously trying out italian refs, which is good in a way, but they are clearly not up to the job.

I fell asleep.

HERSH wrote:I fell asleep.

Well, don't worry about it then.

LordDowlais wrote:Look, I know people are going to jump on me for this, but seriously we need to sort out the joke that was reffing the Blues v Glasgow game last night. We need to try and showcase our young league and make it appeal to people who are not quite on board, but if I was one of those people and I decided to watch that game last night, I would have just walked away, why, because that ref last night was nothing but an ammature, how can you make such blatantly bad calls on such a regular accurance over eighty minutes, that ref last night totally ruined the game. Things like this need to be looked at because at the moment these incompetent refs are ruining our league.

Your Lordship - that is the worst effort at spelling A M A T E U R I have seen ! Take it English is not your first language ?

LordDowlais wrote:

HERSH wrote:I fell asleep.

Well, don't worry about it then.

On a different thread I was just reading HERSH wrote

HERSH wrote:What a poor advert for the Rabo, The Ref was awful too.

So why say you we're asleep when also saying you watched it???

It is all well and good to have inexperienced referees but the qualification process that they undertake to receive a call to adjudicate at this level must be stricter.

It is unfaire on fans and the teams they support having an under qualified referee in charge.

maestegmafia wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

HERSH wrote:I fell asleep.

Well, don't worry about it then.

On a different thread I was just reading HERSH wrote

HERSH wrote:What a poor advert for the Rabo, The Ref was awful too.

So why say you we're asleep when also saying you watched it???

Are you saying it's not possible to fall asleep whilst watching a game over a period of 80mins + Half time?

I suggest you re read what you wrote Mae, then maybe just maybe you'll realise how stupid your comments are.

This weekend has shown a lot of matches which were refereed poorly. I didn't see Blues-Glasgow, but I did see Gloucester-Bath and the Argentina-Australia matches, and the referees in both were poor. This is not an isolated incident limited to any nation or league. I wonder why at this moment we are seeing so many problems.

Thank god that was Dave Pearson last game, the guy has been awful for years.

But who replaces Pearson? I think quality of referees globally is lacking. I wonder what is being done about this at the moment.

Everyone has to start some where.

At least it wasn't a high profile game.

HERSH wrote:

maestegmafia wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

HERSH wrote:I fell asleep.

Well, don't worry about it then.

On a different thread I was just reading HERSH wrote

HERSH wrote:What a poor advert for the Rabo, The Ref was awful too.

So why say you we're asleep when also saying you watched it???

Are you saying it's not possible to fall asleep whilst watching a game over a period of 80mins + Half time?

I suggest you re read what you wrote Mae, then maybe just maybe you'll realise how stupid your comments are.

I don't care enough about your opinion. As you said you fell asleep what would you know?

The fact that you follow me around these boards says otherwise.

Mae if this harassment continues I'll have to raise a complaint, I think its clear you have other motives other than just disagreeing with my views on the game

I feel there is another mass cut and paste coming up!!!!


Back on topic.

I for one would like to see more ex players becoming Refs.
I'm sure some of these guys have never played the game, this is even more evident the further down the leagues you go, at a recent NL2 south game the Ref couldn't have been any more than early twenties plus his build indicated he wouldn't have been a forward, so how could he tell what was going on in the front row?

It was guess work.

HERSH wrote:The fact that you follow me around these boards says otherwise.

Mae if this harassment continues I'll have to raise a complaint, I think its clear you have other motives other than just disagreeing with my views on the game

Hersh, when a number of posters accused you of trolling welsh/Celtic rugby threads the other day you protested that you were forced to interact with us Celtic/Rabbo fans due to the enormity of our existence.

Surely if that we're the case, it would be you stalking us...???

Lets make a pact to avoid each other. Your existence does absolutely nothing to increase or decrease my or many many other peoples enjoyment of this site. Your posts are almost a parody of your predictability.

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:Look, I know people are going to jump on me for this, but seriously we need to sort out the joke that was reffing the Blues v Glasgow game last night. We need to try and showcase our young league and make it appeal to people who are not quite on board, but if I was one of those people and I decided to watch that game last night, I would have just walked away, why, because that ref last night was nothing but an ammature, how can you make such blatantly bad calls on such a regular accurance over eighty minutes, that ref last night totally ruined the game. Things like this need to be looked at because at the moment these incompetent refs are ruining our league.

Your Lordship - that is the worst effort at spelling A M A T E U R I have seen ! Take it English is not your first language ?

I have auto spell on my I Pad, and it must have assumed this what I wanted, stop being such @rse hole.

I love people who jump on petty little spelling/typing mistakes to make themselves feel better.

It really is petty and inmatuer!

Good answer - blame spell check for AMMATURE ???!!!

RE the ref, he was dire, but in his defence he had to ref that pile of guff that was played in front of him too.

First half Glasgow decided they were going to play the ref like a fiddle and fancied their chances of getting away with such an inexperienced guy. And it worked a treat, they targetted the scrum and breakdown and were allowed carte blanche at times.

2nd half Blues came out to do the same thing and well sadly it worked, by the 60th minute both teams had totally disregarded any breakdown laws and do what they fancied.

I know it sounds like I'm having a go at the guy here but I am defending him, had Nigel Owens been the ref Glasgow wouldve been a totally different team in that first half, but they played to an inexperienced ref. The more decisions ha had to make of course the more he was going to get wrong, by the end of the game he was a bit of a punch bag for each forward.

My point is reffing mistakes are part of the game, but this poor guy shouldn't have been put in this position in the first place, the Rabo is not a ref development league, they should be logging hundreds of hours in semi pro leagues before they get a shot at the big league.

He was clearly nervous and was reffing on reputation, trends and situations rather than actions, but he was trying to avoid scrutiny the poor bugger.

It's interesting that a guy last week said that Top14 were due a number of Pro12 refs this weekend (I'm sure he said this weekend). And he was wondering would we be having some of their refs.

Obviously that didn't materialise!

That's "immatueir" acctualy, bluesman, btw

SecretFly wrote:That's "immatueir" acctualy, bluesman, btw

Are you absolutely sure

Are you sure it's not immacher fly?

I'm just not sure anymore, it has shaken me to the core

I'm not one to criticism refs but the Leinster/Munster ref was a homer and Clancy was too in the Ulster/Connacht game.

The problem I see is instead of using common sense and doing whats right for the game they're just looking for reasons to blow the whistle all the time. For instance the benefit of the doubt is rarely given to the attacking team. If a player drops the ball these days the ref will blow for a knock on if it isn't easy to judge.

The scrums have been better this season but there has to be new rules drawn up to help refs.

Problem with giving benefit to the attacking team is that teams will look to dominate ball ilegally and take fewer risks in attack.

Keep the ball up the jumper knowing the ref will give you the benefit, keep on the ref that the defence is trying to do something illegally.

IMO refs need fewer regulations not more, allow attacking teams to ref their own side of the ruck, when ritchie mccaw types start flopping on the wrong side and get injured they'll soon stop doing it, Allow the scrums to play out (unless they go down) and award a free kick to the attacking side not a penalty, also allow flankers to make contact with each other at the scrum, as long as they are bound (i'd change it to shoulder not elbow too).

LordDowlais wrote:

21st Century Schizoid Man wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:Look, I know people are going to jump on me for this, but seriously we need to sort out the joke that was reffing the Blues v Glasgow game last night. We need to try and showcase our young league and make it appeal to people who are not quite on board, but if I was one of those people and I decided to watch that game last night, I would have just walked away, why, because that ref last night was nothing but an ammature, how can you make such blatantly bad calls on such a regular accurance over eighty minutes, that ref last night totally ruined the game. Things like this need to be looked at because at the moment these incompetent refs are ruining our league.

Your Lordship - that is the worst effort at spelling A M A T E U R I have seen ! Take it English is not your first language ?

I have auto spell on my I Pad, and it must have assumed this what I wanted, stop being such @rse hole.

Ignore the pr1ck LD...

I think the biggest problem around refs and reffing is all the talk and complaining about it.

Are refs really worse than in the past or is it just that we think they are because so many people have so much to say about it and its easier than before given things like the internet.

nganboy wrote:I think the biggest problem around refs and reffing is all the talk and complaining about it.

Are refs really worse than in the past or is it just that we think they are because so many people have so much to say about it and its easier than before given things like the internet.

It's second on your list, nganboy. We see more, we think we know more, we have means of making many people listen to how much more we think we know. The internet - simply the biggest pub in the world.

The Blues were rubbish and so were Glasgow, how many times the ball was dropped, don't tell me it was the ref. Yes the ref was poor but the standard of rugby was also very poor.

Dave Pearson has retired from reffing Premiership games now. He didn't have a good last game on Saturday, but to be fair, I think he's been one of the better referees overall during his career.

His new job?

Coaching Scottish and Italian referees for the IRB - they obviously think he's the right man for the job.

Jimpy wrote:Dave Pearson has retired from reffing Premiership games now. He didn't have a good last game on Saturday, but to be fair, I think he's been one of the better referees overall during his career.

His new job?

Coaching Scottish and Italian referees for the IRB - they obviously think he's the right man for the job.

He probably hasn't had the greatest last couple of years, before that he did pretty well.

The IRB's form in hiring ex-refs isn't great, <cough> Paddy O'Brien <cough>.

glamorganalun wrote:The Blues were rubbish and so were Glasgow, how many times the ball was dropped, don't tell me it was the ref. Yes the ref was poor but the standard of rugby was also very poor.

Exactly right. This would have been a poor enough match - and the Blues would have lost - irrespective of who refereed it.

SecretFly wrote:

nganboy wrote:I think the biggest problem around refs and reffing is all the talk and complaining about it.

Are refs really worse than in the past or is it just that we think they are because so many people have so much to say about it and its easier than before given things like the internet.

It's second on your list, nganboy. We see more, we think we know more, we have means of making many people listen to how much more we think we know. The internet - simply the biggest pub in the world.

Didn't see this game but I think the commentators have a lot to answer for in this regard. How often do we see the post match analysis concentrating on the ref's decisions rather than the rugby. So many post match interviews the coaches and players get asked about the decisions the ref has made too.

I think the commentators should stop doing this especially as they frequently are either so biased or so ill informed of the Laws of the game that their comments are pretty daft. Still, it stirs up the less *knowledgable supports into a frenzy time and time again.

*NB. Not suggesting that all in here are in that category! But some...

I am not disputing how rubbish the Blues were, I think we can all agree, that they were very poor, but thats the Blues issues, why on earth though are we having to put up with substandard reffing week in week out ? Something has to be done about this.

I'll do a picard on that comment MrsP



Because I am liking him today as he seems to be pretty popular on 606 in recent times

Now after saying all that bull................... I do happen to agree with you too, which is the important bit.

Maybe Lord, we're at a stage whereby if we don't 'blood' new refs then experienced ones like Mr. Rolland and Nigel, and guys like them, will have to be cloned to take command of all games happening at once?

I love it when people claim that the Rabo is a better league than the Aviva when there are fairly regularly games that are this poor, regardless of farcical refereeing. There is a definitely a tendency on the Glasgow forum to blame more or less everything on the referee when Glasgow don't get a result. The refereeing in the Rabo is definitely not up to standard, e.g. James Jones, Peter Fitzgibbons, but sometimes the rugby isn't that great either.

SecretFly wrote:Maybe Lord, we're at a stage whereby if we don't 'blood' new refs then experienced ones like Mr. Rolland and Nigel, and guys like them, will have to be cloned to take command of all games happening at once?

Yes but why are we "blooding" them in the Rabo ? Surley they should earn their stripes in the next level down before they have a crack at a pro level, why can't we employ some top refs from around the world until we get enough of our own ?

I was hoping this was a thread on last night X-Factor fiasco

LordDowlais wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Maybe Lord, we're at a stage whereby if we don't 'blood' new refs then experienced ones like Mr. Rolland and Nigel, and guys like them, will have to be cloned to take command of all games happening at once?

Why can't we employ some top refs from around the world until we get enough of our own ?

Because they are needed in their own leagues.

clivemcl wrote:I was hoping this was a thread on last night X-Factor fiasco

What happened Clive? Tell us ALL about it.......

red_stag wrote:

LordDowlais wrote:

SecretFly wrote:Maybe Lord, we're at a stage whereby if we don't 'blood' new refs then experienced ones like Mr. Rolland and Nigel, and guys like them, will have to be cloned to take command of all games happening at once?

Why can't we employ some top refs from around the world until we get enough of our own ?

Because they are needed in their own leagues.

Yes but if we offer more money, then we could have them here, just like the players who come here for the moolah, let the other countries put up with the same shoite as we are.

Dowlais, I dont believe referees are any better elsewhere. There has been plenty of below par refereeing with high profile players and coaches who have kicked up a fuss.

Similarly we have seen the same in Premiership and in Southern Hemisphere.

Short of buying the IRB panel, there is no easy fix for referees.

red_stag wrote:Dowlais, I dont believe referees are any better elsewhere. There has been plenty of below par refereeing with high profile players and coaches who have kicked up a fuss.

Similarly we have seen the same in Premiership and in Southern Hemisphere.

Short of buying the IRB panel, there is no easy fix for referees.

This a a good point. For some reason, refereeing in the Southern Hemisphere seems to take an NFL-like stance on forward passes. 'Very flat' means forward, basically.

Crypto, I think its understandable. Referees do (or should) operate on a premise that they blow the whistle for clear and definite infringements. At that speed forward passes are very hard to call and they are not sure enough to ping them.

I suppose the question is if you prefer referees to miss the occasional forward pass or to have them penalise the occasion legit pass.

But they will definitely make mistakes on it time to time.

Cryptoyourisan wrote:

red_stag wrote:Dowlais, I dont believe referees are any better elsewhere. There has been plenty of below par refereeing with high profile players and coaches who have kicked up a fuss.

Similarly we have seen the same in Premiership and in Southern Hemisphere.

Short of buying the IRB panel, there is no easy fix for referees.

This a a good point. For some reason, refereeing in the Southern Hemisphere seems to take an NFL-like stance on forward passes. Very flat' means forward, basically.

Now this debate is getting interesting because I sometimes think I must be the only one even here (NH) looking at blatant 'very flat' passing creeping in here and them being increasingly allowed to stick as legit. God, I can't remember the game, but a few weeks ago there was a game where there was a controversal non-try decision? I think it might have been a Welsh derby. Anyway, my issue amidst all the melee that the try should have been given was to think to myself that actually the initial pass to the attacking player shouldn't have been allowed anyway - to me it was way forward. But the ensuing fight here on 606 was about the ref not giving a try. We see what we want to see.

The referees are kind of in a no win situation. The amount of things they are meant to keep an eye on is getting to a ridiculous level. Then at any scrum/lineout/mall/ruck/highball there are usually multiple infringements by both teams at the same time. If the tackler isn't releasing, the tackled player is trying to pass the ball from the deck, the support is coming in from the side and someone else is falling off their feet, it is a matter of which offense does the referee see first. Or do they see two at the same time and decide to just let it work itself out as they both should be pinged.

Don't get me wrong, referees still need to improve. And linesmen should be more interactive with referees to call offsides/foulplay and infringements at the opposite side of any breakdown the referee is at.

Maybe the mentality of assistant referees needs adjusting.

At the moment the attitude is that they should get touch, kicks at goal and flagging foul play right. Anything else is a bonus.