IRB elite refereeing Panel.

First topic message reminder :

Links to the new refereeing Panel.

Welsh Rugby Union http://www.wru.co.uk/eng/news/21713.php

New Zealand Herlad http://www.nzherald.co.nz/rugby/news/article.cfm?c_id=80&objectid=10794342

IRB http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/mediazone/pressrelease/newsid=2061606.html#irb+unveils+referee+selection+restructure

Good

Rava wrote:No mate she wasn't joking. I can assure you of that. I know RD. she isn't Mr Rolland's biggest fan.

Neither are England after the 6 Nations. Fancy complaining about them over it?

Why would England be complaining?

You must not have payed attention to this forum after France v England. I agree with them too and they happened to agree with us when we complained about George Clancy's interpretations at the breakdown. Seeing both on the elite list doesn't inspire me with confidence after seeing how poor they were in the 6 Nations. The best IMO is Craig Joubert.

All judgements of referees are subjective. They are dependant on how well they refereed a particular game. I think all those listed on the elite list are there by merit and have no issue with any of them.

Double Post

George Clancy isn't a very good referee I hope Wales manage to avoid him, I'd of liked to of seen Italian Marius Mitrea given a chance I think he's pretty decent.

John Paul Doyle from England is also pretty decent from what Iv'e seen.

This article,in the light of the controversy over refereeing in the RWC is a valid one.Paddy O`Brien no longer holds sway,being posted sideways to supervise
the Olympics Sevens refs.
Bryce Lawrence and Wayne Barnes have been removed from the scene[hey Voodoo Dolls do work!!]
Of the Refs. retained personally I think Alain Rolland and Craig Joubert are the pick of the bunch.BUT Stuart Dickenson?
More importantly 5 areas are now going to be rigourously policed.
Tackle Area,releasing and rolling away,tackler releasing,and going off the feet[Sealing off].
Scrum engagement,and correct binding,pity nothing about squint feeds by Scrum half.
Offside at the Ruck
Offside at the kick[good bye Blitz Defence?]
the Maul,and legal defence of it.
Hopefully that will mean less penalties/cards/anomalies[after teams adjust of course].

How the hell is Clancy anywhere near that list he is one of the worst I have seen for a long time.

Doesn't let the game flow at all and is way to whistle happy,

topics merged

If you are going to merge then at least get the article that lists who the refs are at the beginning.
One is based on rumors the other is the actual list.

Yes boss

Clancy's interpretations leading to a stop start game might have been due to players going off their feet sealing off the ball at rucks, so they don't have to commit too many players and also coming around the side of rucks to grab the head/neck of defenders. All illegal.

Just a thought.

From today's Grauniad:

England's two leading referees dropped from elite international panel

by Paul Rees

England's two leading referees, Wayne Barnes and David Pearson, have been dropped from the elite panel after being marked down in the Six Nations champ-ionship and will not take charge of international matches this summer.

England now do not have a single representative on the nine-man panel, which was chosen for the first time by a committee of four former international referees that will meet four times a year to review performances.

The change was made after criticism of the way referees were appointed in the group stage of the World Cup. Samoa were among the countries who complained that the system was weighted in favour of the established nations.

Barnes and Pearson were involved in controversy on the opening weekend of the Six Nations tournament. Pearson was running the line in Dublin when he flagged the Wales second row Bradley Davies for dropping Donnacha Ryan on his head in an incident off the ball. Barnes was the referee and he accepted Pearson's recommendation of a yellow card. Davies was subsequently cited and suspended for seven weeks for foul play.

Barnes angered the Irish at the end of the game by penalising Stephen Ferris for a tip-tackle on Ian Evans. He sent Ferris to the sin-bin and Wales kicked the penalty to win the match. Ferris was cited, but the case was thrown out.

Pearson then took charge of Ireland's match in Paris, angering the French by calling the original fixture off because of a frozen pitch with the stadium full of fans and, when the game was played to following weekend, irking the Irish by his handling of the breakdown.

The International Rugby Board is looking for a new elite referees manager after appointing Paddy O'Brien as the high performance manager of the World Series Sevens circuit.

Elite referee panel: George Clancy (Ireland), Jerome Garces (France), Craig Joubert (South Africa), Nigel Owens (Wales), Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Romain Poite (France), Alain Rolland (Ireland), Steve Walsh (Australia).

Amazed that clownshoes Clancy has kept his status

ASBO, I am going to merge this with the other topic about the referreeing panel.

Bit of sympathy for Barnes who twice has been screwed by relying on his Assistants and been given the wrong advice. He was backed in the original reviews on the Ferris call even when the citing comission decided it wasnt worthy of a card that this wasnt a poor decision ( just incorrect), and was backed by the referees assesment panel.

How the hell Clancey keeps his position is amazing. I feel that he is worse than both Barnes and Pearson.

PSW, I think the assessments of his continuos perfromance is the reason, there is no way they can drop him becuase of those decisions if they backed him on those issues.

biltongbek wrote:PSW, I think the assessments of his continuos perfromance is the reason, there is no way they can drop him becuase of those decisions if they backed him on those issues.

Oh aye, sure, hadn't seen that one - my bad

biltongbek wrote:PSW, I think the assessments of his continuos perfromance is the reason, there is no way they can drop him becuase of those decisions if they backed him on those issues.

Well its a different bunch of peopel who made the decisions here. I certainly dont think they could still be holding 2007 against him.
With both the 6 nations controversies he followed protocol and trusted his AR. It surprissed me a bit hes been dropped because he was scored highly on the refs forum for the worldcup.

I guess the people on this new panel just doint like his interpretations.


Looking at some of the names retained it certainly seems the panel hate scrums.

Just dont let Lawrence or Pearson anywhere near an Ireland match and I am ok.

Clancy needs to less pedantic. I think I might decide not to go to a game if he was named the referee. He kills it as a spectacle.

Peter Seabiscuit Wheeler wrote:
Well its a different bunch of peopel who made the decisions here. I certainly dont think they could still be holding 2007 against him.
With both the 6 nations controversies he followed protocol and trusted his AR. It surprissed me a bit hes been dropped because he was scored highly on the refs forum for the worldcup.

I guess the people on this new panel just doint like his interpretations.


Looking at some of the names retained it certainly seems the panel hate scrums.

Yes he did but with the Davis fiasco he should have known, after Pearsons description which was pretty clear, that it should have been a red card and not just a yellow. Its 6 of 1 and half dozen of the other but he really should have known.

Clancy is the startling inclusion on that list for me. I would have been happy for him and Pearson to be dropped. The ferris call barnes only gets one look at even if he got it wrong,

I dont rate him much either but I think he is a better ref than Clancy.

Clancy is just a poor ref in my mind. Too pedantic and does not allow the game to flow. I would be happy to see him and Barnes swap places.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/pearson-and-barnes-axed-by-irb-in-shake-up-188252.html


So Bryce Lawrence, Dave Pearson and Wayne Barnes have been axed form the elite panel, with Paddy O'Brien stepping down. John Jeffrey, acting chairman of the selection committee said “The IRB is committed to ensuring that the platform is in place to promote the very best refereeing standards at the elite level of the game,” ........“Our priority is the continued promotion of consistency and performance and our strategic goal is to deliver the best available panel for Rugby World Cup 2015 while at the same time applying the best-for-best principle in the selection of referees for each international window.”

The new nine strong elite referees list wil be Nigel Owens, Alain Rolland, Craig Joubert, Jaco Peyper, Jerome Garces, Romain Poite, Steve Walsh, Chris Pollock, George Clancy.

So is this harsh on Barnes and Pearson for their display in the Wales v Ireland game?? I guess there'll not be much concern with Lawrence getting kicked off ?? Is Clancy lucky to be retained??

What do we think?

Sorry all

Didn't see the other thread on this already

No worries I merge it.

Nigel Owens is the best ref in the world IMO.

The best referee in my opinion is a retired referee.

beshocked wrote:Nigel Owens is the best ref in the world IMO.

Owens is definately up there Joubert and Walsh are good too their firm fair and allow the game to flow if they can

Barnes and Pearson had to go after the debacle of the Wales Ireland game and Ive seen Pearson a few times this season ignore blocks right in front of him and tries being scored

Barnes probably had higher scrutiny on him since 2007 and maybe the board looked at him and said they'd had enough.

Reasons for Barnes and Pearson being dropped are probably a lot simpler than seems. Look at nationalities of the selection panel, one each from Ireland, Wales, New Zealand and South Africa. Given this the Irish and Welsh referees were never going to be dropped.

No doubt England and France will continue to have to put up with having Pro12 refs officiating in games against Pro12 countries whose players know thoses refs inside out.

Exiledinborders wrote:Reasons for Barnes and Pearson being dropped are probably a lot simpler than seems. Look at nationalities of the selection panel, one each from Ireland, Wales, New Zealand and South Africa. Given this the Irish and Welsh referees were never going to be dropped.

No doubt England and France will continue to have to put up with having Pro12 refs officiating in games against Pro12 countries whose players know thoses refs inside out.

Didn't help Ireland much against England. The moral being play well enough to win and you'll win, despite the ref having a bet on your opposition