Leinster v Scarlets

First topic message reminder :

Leinster:

15 Rob Kearney, 14 Zane Kirchner, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Noel Reid, 11 Cian Kelleher, 10 Ian Madigan, 9 Isaac Boss, 8 Jamie Heaslip (c), 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Dominic Ryan, 5 Tom Denton, 4 Devin Toner, 3 Mike Ross, 2 James Tracy, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Bryan Byrne, 17 Jack McGrath, 18 Marty Moore, 19 Hayden Triggs, 20 Dan Leavy, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Johnny Sexton, 23 Ben Te'o.

Scarlets:

15 Aled Thomas, 14 Tom Williams, 13 Gareth Owen, 12 Hadleigh Parkes, 11 Michael Tagicakibau, 10 Dan Jones, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 John Barclay (c), 7 James Davies, 6 Aaron Shingler, 5 Lewis Rawlins, 4 Jake Ball, 3 Peter Edwards, 2 Emyr Phillips, 1 Rob Evans.
Replacements: 16 Ken Owens, 17 Dylan Evans, 18 Will Taylor, 19 Tom Price, 20 Maselino Paulino, 21 Aled Davies, 22 Michael Collins, 23 Harry Robinson.

Date: Friday, November 6
Venue: RDS Arena
Kick-off: 19:35 GMT
Referee: Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Assistant referees: Leo Colgan (Ireland), Olly Hodges (Ireland)
TMO: Seamus Flannery (Ireland)

The thread is fairly late but what the hey.

This is usually a good high scoring game and we've 2 fairly experimental teams out so there could be some scores in this one.Bookies have Leinster as 10 point favourites which seems very high and you also have to factor in that the Scarlets have unsportingly decided to have a tight enough defense this season.Hoping for a good game that Leinster win.

Of course things look different live, on occasion you'll pick something up that is not highlighted on tv just as you see things from a different perspective when watching on tv but it doesn't change the fact that there is a lack on consitancy from referees and I don't need a bunch of one eyed Turks booing at every decision against us to see that! I've seen this season as an example, an opposing player coming off his feet directly in front of the ref, no penalty and then at the following ruck the Scarlets player commits the same said offence and is then rightly penalised but in order to be consistent the first offence should either be penalised or you ignore both, you can't let one go and not the other. This clearly isn't just a Scarlets issue but a league wide one. The sooner the issue regarding the standard of officiating is sorted then surely the more appealing the product on the pitch becomes to the casual fan?

BuzzScarlet wrote:Until refs become consistent in their decisions you'll always get people who will bitch and moan about them. As someone who goes to every Scarlets home match it is incredibly frustrating watching my own team being penalised for an infringement and then seeing the opposition committing the same offence in front of the ref and getting away with it time and time again! This isn't just Irish refs but Scottish, Welsh and Italians to. Whether or not it's a subconscious thing but some refs do favour certain teams on reputation alone. As frustrating as it can be, I can except refs making a mistake but ref both teams the same and just be consistent. Until this is achieved then conspiracy theories will continue and the credibility of the league will always be questioned.

"My own team"... do you think the Scarlets are the only team who get this treatment? Flip me, Ulster have had some of the biggest calls made in some of the biggest games in its history, where it really did make a difference. The Scarlets aren't the only team to be hard done by from time to time, yet going by some of the comments on here they are the biggest victims of the lot it seems.

It just isn't possible for the referees to show 100% consistency, though they should always strive to achieve it. The reality is that rugby union is an extremely difficult game to officiate and putting unrealistic expectations and moaning "cheat" every game isn't going to help. If anything it will make it a less desirable environment for new officials to come in. The league needs improvement obviously, but do you really believe they aren't trying to improve? The nonsensical conspiracy theories don't deserve any respect, nor do the halfwits who come up with them until there is genuine objective evidence to suggest that it is the case. Poor decisions made against their favourite team do not count as objective evidence because every team will have grievances there. The true and sensible answers to those queries do exist as I have alluded to above, but some would rather believe in fairy tales.

BuzzScarlet wrote:Of course things look different live, on occasion you'll pick something up that is not highlighted on tv just as you see things from a different perspective when watching on tv but it doesn't change the fact that there is a lack on consitancy from referees and I don't need a bunch of one eyed Turks booing at every decision against us to see that! I've seen this season as an example, an opposing player coming off his feet directly in front of the ref, no penalty and then at the following ruck the Scarlets player commits the same said offence and is then rightly penalised but in order to be consistent the first offence should either be penalised or you ignore both, you can't let one go and not the other. This clearly isn't just a Scarlets issue but a league wide one. The sooner the issue regarding the standard of officiating is sorted then surely the more appealing the product on the pitch becomes to the casual fan?

This is what people complain about? this literally happens in every match. It's just a very hard game to ref and crowds booing at every decision isn't going to help

LeinsterFan4life wrote:

BuzzScarlet wrote:Of course things look different live, on occasion you'll pick something up that is not highlighted on tv just as you see things from a different perspective when watching on tv but it doesn't change the fact that there is a lack on consitancy from referees and I don't need a bunch of one eyed Turks booing at every decision against us to see that! I've seen this season as an example, an opposing player coming off his feet directly in front of the ref, no penalty and then at the following ruck the Scarlets player commits the same said offence and is then rightly penalised but in order to be consistent the first offence should either be penalised or you ignore both, you can't let one go and not the other. This clearly isn't just a Scarlets issue but a league wide one. The sooner the issue regarding the standard of officiating is sorted then surely the more appealing the product on the pitch becomes to the casual fan?

This is what people complain about? this literally happens in every match. It's just a very hard game to ref and crowds booing at every decision isn't going to help

Yep. Probably THE most difficult game to ref in fact.

Just get refs to be consistent in their decisions and ref both sides the same. No conspiracy theory from me, just that the standard of officiating in the pro 12 is poor across the board. If you are happy with the standard of the refs, assistant refs and TMO's in the league then that's fine but I, like many am not. The sooner the league sorts the issue the better.

BuzzScarlet wrote:Just get refs to be consistent in their decisions and ref both sides the same. No conspiracy theory from me, just that the standard of officiating in the pro 12 is poor across the board. If you are happy with the standard of the refs, assistant refs and TMO's in the league then that's fine but I, like many am not. The sooner the league sorts the issue the better.

A ref can never be consistent in the eyes of a supporter. I'm not just talking about rugby here either; People complain about refs in every sport because everyone is biased towards their own teams

There are people on here who seem to think this is exclusive to the Pro 12, but I can tell you if you were to spend time on a AP or any other forum its the exact same! Even the GAA refs get awful abuse despite the fact it's fully amateur and these guys are doing it purely for the love of the game.

When the tackler is slow rolling away, the attacking player on the ground is holding onto the ball, the defending flanker is in at the diagonal over the ball, the lock/prop is falling off their feet at the clearout and there is a random boot appearing from nowhere to kick at the ball, it means there are 5-6 infringements at the breakdown. A supporter of one of the teams, or a person with a preconception, can pick out any one of the items to either give the ref credit or call them useless.

This has always been the case though, even in the golden amateur days.


Thought Leinster had a very poor game, but over the 80 minutes Scarlets weren't good enough to win it.
Boss should be dropped not just from the starting team, but preferably out of a plane at altitude somewhere over antartica.
Noel Reid can't defend.
Rob K was poor up to going off injured.
Healy was poor and is clearly behind McGrath at this stage.
Behind Toner, Molony is probably our next best lock (which sounds alot of alarms cos he is a kid).
Ross scored a try -- considering he should only be the 3rd man reaching a breakdown, Ross picking and going means there was absolutely no pace on the game.
Ringrose looked dangerous.
Jamie and SOB looked pedestrian.
Dom Ryan should have been carded for that b!tch slap early in the game.
Ball was unlucky to be carded (though the scarlert beside him that took down the maul after it had marched 30 yards up to the try line should have been the one to get the card).
Leinster's defensive line was too passive and there was no line speed.
Kick chase was non-existent.
James Tracey did well in the loose.