Bath vs. London Irish (I'd like some neutrals opinions please)

Ok, first things first, we were beaten by the better side. Fair play to Bath, their pack smashed us and they fully deserved to win the game. I do however feel as though we were a little hard done by with some decisions. I am however fully 100% bias towards my team, and would appreciate some comments from neutral observers over the validity of the 3 yellow cards that we recieved as well as the penalty try given against us.

My own view is that yes Topsy catches the very short Biggs just above the shoulder with the tackle, which by no means could be considered a swinging arm. Penalty? Yes. Penalty try and yellow card? Very harsh.

Topsy Ojo's (29th minute) Yellow Card

For this one from Tom Homer the referee says to him "You've got to get back to your feet before you can do that" which confuses me, as I don't see any point where Tom is off his feet until he is cleared out whilst he already has his hands on the ball.

Tom Homer's (52nd minute) Yellow Card

The next clip has nothing to do with refereeing decisions, but is pure indulgence on my part as we scored a good try.

Jack Moates's (62nd minute) Try

Yellow for not rolling away, despite the fact that he appears to be trying to roll away.

Jon Fisher's (73rd minute) Yellow Card


Am I being one eyed? Would I be calling for cards were it Bath players committing these 'offences'?

Once again though, well played Bath, you looked a good side yesterday and if you can maintain form from now until the end of the season you could well still snatch the 4th play off spot.

Ozzy,

I can't watch those clips at work but for a team to concede three yellows in a game and for them to not be for a mass fight is questionable reffing in my book.

To compare to Quins games, last week Wasps conceded 21 pens against us most of which were when under pressure in their half. 1 yellow was given.

Yesterday Tigers conceded a similar amount and again most were in their halves while defending, this time none were given.

I would question any ref who gives three in a game.

We were under the cosh, and depending on reports we conceded either 18 or 23 penalties which is a massive amount. Other than the penalty try which was given, all three of Bath's other tries were scored when we were down to 14 men.

Our defence and discipline has been good over the past 6 or 7 games, but perhaps the pressure we were under told and is the reason for the high count. Just looking at them they feel a little on the harsh side though.

My own view is that yes Topsy catches the very short Biggs just above the shoulder with the tackle, which by no means could be considered a swinging arm. Penalty? Yes. Penalty try and yellow card? Very harsh.

Just above the shoulder - soround the neck. It is a clear penalty, and thus so close to the line I agree with it also being a penalty try. The YC feels harsh, but I can understand why it was given.

Any view on the other two LT?

Ozzy3213 wrote:Ok, first things first, we were beaten by the better side. Fair play to Bath, their pack smashed us and they fully deserved to win the game. I do however feel as though we were a little hard done by with some decisions. I am however fully 100% bias towards my team, and would appreciate some comments from neutral observers over the validity of the 3 yellow cards that we recieved as well as the penalty try given against us.

My own view is that yes Topsy catches the very short Biggs just above the shoulder with the tackle, which by no means could be considered a swinging arm. Penalty? Yes. Penalty try and yellow card? Very harsh.

Topsy Ojo's (29th minute) Yellow Card

For this one from Tom Homer the referee says to him "You've got to get back to your feet before you can do that" which confuses me, as I don't see any point where Tom is off his feet until he is cleared out whilst he already has his hands on the ball.

Tom Homer's (52nd minute) Yellow Card

The next clip has nothing to do with refereeing decisions, but is pure indulgence on my part as we scored a good try.

Jack Moates's (62nd minute) Try

Yellow for not rolling away, despite the fact that he appears to be trying to roll away.

Jon Fisher's (73rd minute) Yellow Card


Am I being one eyed? Would I be calling for cards were it Bath players committing these 'offences'?

Once again though, well played Bath, you looked a good side yesterday and if you can maintain form from now until the end of the season you could well still snatch the 4th play off spot.

Here's my take on it.

Ojo's - penalty try seemed fair enough, i think Biggs would have scored without the high arm. But yellow? Harsh, it wasn't dirty or deliberate just stuck out an arm instinctively.

Homer - Watched it about million times and still not sure, it's hard to see if his knee goes to ground. I would say though that when his arm rips the ball out he looks near horizontal, even if he may have been technically on his feet, so I can see why it was given. Not too many issues with that and with its position, i can see why a yellow was given.

Fisher - Harsh. He was a little slow but probably a result of being knackered, i don't think it was gamesmanship or anything and it barely slowed the recycling down. If he'd done a similar thing earlier I can see why the ref may have thought it deliberate but I think he got that wrong.

Also, the try was a cracker

If you don't mind me asking, how did Garvey and Fearns get on, oh and Eastmond, he looked a handful from those clips!

For this one from Tom Homer the referee says to him "You've got to get back to your feet before you can do that" which confuses me, as I don't see any point where Tom is off his feet until he is cleared out whilst he already has his hands on the ball.

It all depends on when Homer rips the ball away. If he does it before he hits the ground he is ok. Once he is cleared out he is not allowed to then rip the ball away. It looks to me that the ripping action happens once he has landed on his back. So yes a penalty. Whether it deserved a YC needs context from the game before that.

Garvey - not his best performance of the season. We got a bit beaten up up front and he looked as if he could probably do with a rest having played most games this season. Got replaced in the second half.

Eastmond - looks a really good player. Would liek to see him involved with England in the sumemr.

Fearns - Solid, hard worker. Bath pack was on top all game and he was part of it.

Yellow for not rolling away, despite the fact that he appears to be trying to roll away.

I would be unhappy if my player was sinbinned for that - but screaming for theopposition to be sinbinned. He does deliberatley put himslef in the way before moving. He only slows the ball down marginally and it looks harsh - but it is definitely a penalty offence.

LondonTiger wrote:

Yellow for not rolling away, despite the fact that he appears to be trying to roll away.

I would be unhappy if my player was sinbinned for that - but screaming for theopposition to be sinbinned. He does deliberatley put himslef in the way before moving. He only slows the ball down marginally and it looks harsh - but it is definitely a penalty offence.

23-16 down with 7 minutes to play when that happened and we lost 40-16. Just really disappointing really.

So in summary. To me all are penalties and the penalty try was correct. YC for Ojo seems harsh. Homer seems fair enough and Fishers somewhere in between. If LI were shipping penalties galore I can see why he was binned.

Fair enough LT. Bit of a glum sporting weekend for me being an Arsenal fan as well.

Ozzy3213 wrote:Fair enough LT. Bit of a glum sporting weekend for me being an Arsenal fan as well.

Ouch.