Pro 12 plus maybe Friends 20/21

First topic message reminder :

As one season finishes it seems the new one seems to start sooner each year.  Here is the breakdown of teams over the last three years. Places (based on league points) and points are order 19/20, 18/19, 17/18

Leinster (Champions and clearly the team to beat)
Place 1, 3, 2, Average 2
Points 69, 76, 70 total 215
Always have finished top of their conference and winners for the last three years
Goal - Win, anything else is failure

Munster
Place 3, 2, 4 Average 3
Points 51, 77, 69 Total 197
Yet another table where Munster fall short yet again.  Each of the last three years have been knocked out by Leinster
Goal - Top Conference (2nd in league) to finally avoid Leinster in the playoffs to make the final

Glasgow
Place 7, 1, 1 Average 3
Points 38, 81, 76 Total 195
Was this year a WC hangover or is it the start of the slide back to the chasing pack.  Losing key players is taking it's toll. No longer the best team in Scotland.
Goal - Win back dominance in Scotland

Ulster
Place 4, 4, 6 Average 4.33
Points 44, 63, 62 Total 169
Improving each year and seem like one of the teams to challange Leinster.
Goal - Get back to the final

Scarlets
Place 4, 9, 3 Average 5.33
Points 47, 52, 70 Total 169
Last year killed them but on their day a match of anyone. Best team usually in Wales.
Goal - make the final

Edinburgh
Place 2, 10, 5 Average 5.66
Total 51, 51, 68 Total 170
Like Scarlets last year killed them.  Have conquered Scotland and have one of the best coaches in the league.  Possibly the 2nd best team for next season if Cockers has cracked rotation.
Goal - make the final

Connacht
Place 6, 5, 10 Average 7
Points 40, 61, 39 Total 140
Excluding the first year under Keane have been playoff contenders each year.  But they need to push on and not just be happy fighting for a playoff sport.
Have to push for Top 4

Benetton
Place 8, 7, 7 Average 7.33
Points 36, 57, 55 Total 148
Consistency has got them middle of the table which is a good place to build from rather than just the place to stay.
Goal - time to push for Top 6

Blues
Place 9, 8, 8 Average  8.33
Points 33, 54, 54 Total 141
Again consistent in their place but have fallen down and past by their peers.  Have to be looking over their shoulders at Dragons and Zebre.
Goal - time to get above 8th.

Ospreys
Place 12, 6, 9 Average 9
Points 17, 58, 54 Total 119
Which year was the anomaly, when they finished 6th or 12th.  An old team who live on past glories. Last year 6th may have been down to the drop in form of Scarlets and Edinburgh.
Goal - stop the rot

Dragons
Place 10, 11, 12 Average 11
Points 24, 26, 20 Total 70
Slowly improving.  No longer unable to win away from home and building nicely.
Goal - has to be 9th

Zebre
Place 11, 12, 11 Average 11.33
Points 21, 19, 36 Total 76
Have alot of young players coming through.  Last year wasn't great but the other two were improvements on previous years.
Goal - Finished 10th and pick up some big wins.

Pot Hale wrote:

RiscaGame wrote:Imagine liking your own posts.

Indeed.  I suppose someone has to.

Imagine there being an adult who actually types that out and hits send.

Pot Hale wrote:

Brendan wrote:Great win for Ospreys away from home.  Result of the round for me.

Edinburgh's 4th loss on the bounce and missing a few of their decent players.  Ospreys stacked with their test players.   Not particularly surprising.  

Edinburgh going from poor to abysmal.   Cockerill has a fight on his hands to get them back on the horse.  

Ospreys aren’t quite there yet, but this was an improvement. It’s not like they could get worse though is it? Hopefully they’ve finally got a coaching staff to get the best out of them. The league would benefit from a good Ospreys teams no?

I think Edinburgh are in good hands with Cockers and will get better. Probably still a competitor for a play-off place.

Not sure how it was luck of the Irish when the ref was SRU and two assistants and TMO were WRU.  Considering he sent off a player from Munster (don't think anyone had an issue with the red) none of the assistants told him he needed to cancel the try and give the penalty so seems the correct decision.

Regarding the De Allende issue it still doesn't explain the collapse of the Scarlets.  Add in that neither asitant saw it either, we cant slow down real time.  I am sure there are a few little things like that in every game.  As a Munster Fan I was worried about the game as it was a bad start to the season.  To score three tries away from home was great especially after the three previous games.  (Win over Connacht was down to them losing two players rather than Munster being great).

Scarlets lost because it never seemed like they felt they would be far enough ahead to kick to the corners and were going to take any kick at goal offered.  That told Munster that Scarlets were worried.  If you want to hurt Munster you have to go for the throat.  Leinster once 7+ head would probably have gone to the corner.

When you have a penalty on halfway, opposition down to 14 and have lost one of their better lineout threats would you not kick to the corner and at least try put the nail in the coffin.  Instead they take the three and then are getting ball back under pressure in their own 22 and Munster levelled up nearly a minute later.

mikey_dragon wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Brendan wrote:Great win for Ospreys away from home.  Result of the round for me.

Edinburgh's 4th loss on the bounce and missing a few of their decent players.  Ospreys stacked with their test players.   Not particularly surprising.  

Edinburgh going from poor to abysmal.   Cockerill has a fight on his hands to get them back on the horse.  

Ospreys aren’t quite there yet, but this was an improvement. It’s not like they could get worse though is it? Hopefully they’ve finally got a coaching staff to get the best out of them. The league would benefit from a good Ospreys teams no?

I think Edinburgh are in good hands with Cockers and will get better. Probably still a competitor for a play-off place.

Big thing from Ospreys was they actually seemed to know what to do. Last year they seemed to just go through the monitions and were moving the ball with no intent.

POM has a knack for that diving with the shoulder thing. I still don’t get how he’s that highly rated in Munster.

Kingshu wrote:

rugby racing and beer wrote:

profitius wrote:

rugby racing and beer wrote:

Brendan wrote:Today big win from Connacht.  First Scottish win since 2017 and picking up the important home win against a bigger team.

Not a great result for Scarlets, couldn't score any tries at home.  15 mins to go Munster go down to 14 men and Scarlets concedes 13 unanswered points.  Not really the best start.

There were about 5 50:50 decisions in the last 12 minutes, compounded by a terrible decision to award a penalty because Damien de Allende dropped the ball as he was tackled (he claimed tackler not rolling away or hands on the floor or something, basically a cop out, it doesn't matter, it's same old, same old from Celtic Rugby). Good comeback from Munster but the ref played a big part in handing them a key momentum switch. They scored directly from the penalty kick to touch because a South African world cup winner dropped the ball in contact. Hanging officiating, absolutely hanging.

Not sure how lucky munster were after scoring 3 tries to Scarlets 0.

Not sure that's a great stat in the circumstances. The Scarlets constantly turned down the corner to kick 3 points. Munster were incredibly fortunate to score 20 points in 12 minutes while down a man, in no small part helped by stupid play for the Scarlets giving away needless penalties, as well as a massive helping hand by the referee.

If you don't think calling a penalty that leads to a converted try to draw the game lucky then I don't know what is. Luck of the Irish? Maybe the definition of luck gets lost in translation. To me, they were reliant on a terrible refereeing error to go from 27-20 to 27-27.

Reading over the Scarlets fan forum and no one is blaming the ref, in fact they think the ref had a good game. Seams like its only you blaming the ref for Scarlets throwing it away. Scarlets fans blame their bench, not being good enough to carry their momentum.

Oh, ok.

That's fine then. Scarletfever didn't mention it's fine.

Did you watch the game?

And what are you actually trying to do?

Brendan wrote:Not sure how it was luck of the Irish when the ref was SRU and two assistants and TMO were WRU.  Considering he sent off a player from Munster (don't think anyone had an issue with the red) none of the assistants told him he needed to cancel the try and give the penalty so seems the correct decision.

Regarding the De Allende issue it still doesn't explain the collapse of the Scarlets.  Add in that neither asitant saw it either, we cant slow down real time.  I am sure there are a few little things like that in every game.  As a Munster Fan I was worried about the game as it was a bad start to the season.  To score three tries away from home was great especially after the three previous games.  (Win over Connacht was down to them losing two players rather than Munster being great).

Scarlets lost because it never seemed like they felt they would be far enough ahead to kick to the corners and were going to take any kick at goal offered.  That told Munster that Scarlets were worried.  If you want to hurt Munster you have to go for the throat.  Leinster once 7+ head would probably have gone to the corner.

When you have a penalty on halfway, opposition down to 14 and have lost one of their better lineout threats would you not kick to the corner and at least try put the nail in the coffin.  Instead they take the three and then are getting ball back under pressure in their own 22 and Munster levelled up nearly a minute later.

Of course it doesn't. But that's not the issue. I'm allowed to complain about absolutely substandard refereeing where it played a major factor in determining the result of the game, to the extent where had he not made such an inept call, the 4 points would obviously be going to the other team.

What happened with De Allende?

Old Man wrote:What happened with De Allende?

He was the victim of a high tackle .

mikey_dragon wrote:

Old Man wrote:What happened with De Allende?

He was the victim of a high tackle .

Well at least we know it wasn’t Owen Farrell

Old Man wrote:What happened with De Allende?

He did nothing wrong. Well, he knocked the ball on as he was tackled and the ref gave a penalty for hands in the ruck because the ball was scrambled back on the other team's side.

The other team scored directly from the resulting lineout to draw level with 2 minutes to go and then went on to win the game.

Don't trust fake news.

It’s still a travesty.

Mikey. No one in munster cares that you don’t rate POM. Least of all the man himself. There is probably a reason why you are a failed commentator on this forum possibly a reflection on reality? Maybe.

Geen sport voor watjes wrote:Mikey. No one in munster cares that you don’t rate POM. Least of all the man himself. There is probably a reason why you are a failed commentator on this forum possibly a reflection on reality? Maybe.

Yeah I figured.

It's an issue that should be taken seriously, yet it just ends up triggering Munstermen for some reason.

Frak me, but you guys love to attack each other’s characters.

Like a bunch of school yard bullies.

Anyway, what's Percy Montgomery up to these days?

No idea, he was showing off his rugby paraphernalia in short video clips during the lockdown, some rugby museum.

Old Man wrote:Frak me, but you guys love to attack each other’s characters.

Like a bunch of school yard bullies.

I think more like the kid who stands behind the bully laughing and pointing. There's a cowardice that comes with bullying people from behind the safety of online anonymity that brings out the worst traits of this type of person.

Unfortunately as a long time reader of this site it seems that the quality of the pool has become stagnant so that far too many of these types are left and not enough honest, interesting, and engaging posters who just want to discuss rugby. It's not what it used to be.

Absolutely a travesty

When we are in such a league as the Pro14 the rivalries cause normally well mannered people to act differently. Anything to put a rival fan down

It's all because of the history

Reviewing the weekend

Big winners
OSPREYS - half way to getting the same number of sins as last year and away from home

Winners
Connacht - first win in a long time v Scottish teams
Blues - played half a game with a man less but saw it out away from home
Munster - scored 3 tries and won while down a man

As expected
Leinster - BP as expected
Dragons - lost but had effort
Ulster - hard game but saw it out in the end
Bennetton - lost but was compeditive away

Losers
Zebre - only here as should have won with the extra man at home, was expected to lose
Glasgow - as a top team would have expected to win narrowly.

Big losers
Scarlets - couldn't score tries, lost when man and 10pts up at home with 10 to go.
Edinburgh - is it 18/19 again, should be winning every home game or at least get a LBP.

Ireland gone into a form of county lockdown. Team sports have been postponed.

The good news is the 4 Pro14 teams are exempt so for now, we don't need to worry for the moment but may change.

Round 2 (previous result in league between teams and season)

9/10
20:15 Dragons v Zebre (12-39 19/20)

10/10
17:35 Ospreys v Ulster (26-24 19/20)
18:15 Benetton v Leinster (27-32 19/20)
19:35 Munster v Edinburgh (16-18 19/20)
19:35 Blues v Connacht (8-7 18/19)

11/10
17:15 Glasgow v Scarlets (21-25 19/20)

Brendan wrote:Ireland gone into a form of county lockdown.  Team sports have been postponed.

The good news is the 4 Pro14 teams are exempt so for now, we don't need to worry for the moment but may change.

Professional teams exempt as they have a regular and strict testing protocol in place is it?


1 senior squad member in Munster tested positive, 5-6 others isolating in case (deemed close contacts). It's reported on the bbc site. Also says that senior squad member didn't travel to the scarlets game at the weekend (probably narrows it down a bit). No training until all tested again and results come back. I suppose this is the norm for the coming season.

I can foresee more cases occurring and games being postponed/cancelled.

Wonder if it’s going to end up affecting test games?

1 senior squad member of Ulster now positive with one in their academy too.

Has to impact on Test games, it's inevitable really. Even just taking Ireland, the Irish setup has players from 4 bubbles commuting into a fifth bubble. Each bubble isn't 100% anyway and every point of transfer / commute opens the risk, increases the odds of picking things up in a wider location that has covid currently on the rise. Slightly covered by the side only pulling from a small number of 'local clubs'. Other sides that have to assemble from clubs across multiple leagues have even higher risk of exposure.

Did anyone find it odd that Turnbull is banned for 3 weeks, but O’Mahony gets off Scot free? (Scottish judicial officer).

mikey_dragon wrote:Did anyone find it odd that Turnbull is banned for 3 weeks, but O’Mahony gets off Scot free? (Scottish judicial officer).

Another O'Mahony complaint, Mikey?

Did he nick your girlfriend or run over your cat or something?

It seems to be a hot topic right now, so thought I’d ask what anyone here thinks?

O’Mahony is a terrible player mind and hugely overrated. I’m in stitches when ever he plays for Ireland knowing what other back-row players they have available.

Pot Hale wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:Did anyone find it odd that Turnbull is banned for 3 weeks, but O’Mahony gets off Scot free? (Scottish judicial officer).

Another O'Mahony complaint, Mikey?

Did he nick your girlfriend or run over your cat or something?  

It is worthy of discussion though. Another example is North getting a four match ban for an accidental collision, especially when it rolled into another season.

I don't buy into the conspiracy theories, but the consistency in bans is poor.

I think the issue is that O'Mahony got a second yellow so not really a red other than couldn't play on.

I was listening to a Welsh podcast who said (and I don't think many would disagree) that the ref did a second yellow rather than a red for the second card as he bottled it.

It like previous ones where the tackle is seen by the ref and dealt with so can't be cited.

Wasn’t O’Mahony still cited for it though? As both incidents from the weekend went through the judicial process. Turnbull has received a 3 week ban because his actions were deemed reckless but not deliberate.

It seems to me that what O’Mahony did was dangerous, reckless and deliberate. See where I’m coming from?

Brendan wrote:Round 2 (previous result in league between teams and season)

9/10
20:15 Dragons v Zebre (12-39 19/20)

10/10
17:35 Ospreys v Ulster (26-24 19/20)
18:15 Benetton v Leinster (27-32 19/20)
19:35 Munster v Edinburgh (16-18 19/20)
19:35 Blues v Connacht (8-7 18/19)

11/10
17:15 Glasgow v Scarlets (21-25 19/20)

Think Dragons will win comfortably, if they don't and its tight then it's the same old Dragons.

Ulster need to win this if they want to finish top two.  Ospreys need to back up last week.  Whoever wins will be doing well, think I give it to Ulster.

Leinster to beat Bennetton well, close first half but winning comfortable in the end.

Munster to beat Edinburgh.  Test to see what Cockers  will do to steady the ship.

Blues or Connacht is anyone's guess.  Think it could be a high scoring game with Blues edging.

Glasgow to win against Scarlets.  Home win with a few tries.  Wonder if Scarlets will  focus on tries instead of penalties this week.

Seems like it's not ideal weather in Newport tomorrow. So obviously Zebre will look to dominate our pack. They would anyway in the dry, but if our backs are playing back foot in less than ideal conditions, then it's advantage Zebre. Hopefully Dragons win. They certainly need to really.

I would probably favour the other two home Welsh teams and Glasgow to win a pretty close game.

mikey_dragon wrote:It seems to be a hot topic right now, so thought I’d ask what anyone here thinks?

O’Mahony is a terrible player mind and hugely overrated. I’m in stitches when ever he plays for Ireland knowing what other back-row players they have available.

But you have a real hard on for the guy. On every occasion like the proverbial broken record. "A terrible player who is hugely overrated" is not a view shared by a lot of professional players or coaches. But have at it, if you must.

Pot Hale wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:It seems to be a hot topic right now, so thought I’d ask what anyone here thinks?

O’Mahony is a terrible player mind and hugely overrated. I’m in stitches when ever he plays for Ireland knowing what other back-row players they have available.

But you have a real hard on for the guy. On every occasion like the proverbial broken record.   "A terrible player who is hugely overrated" is not a view shared by a lot of professional players or coaches.   But have at it, if you must.

It’s anything but a hard on. Typically Irish in avoiding the topic, going as far as to sweep it under the rug. Why don’t you talk about the recent ban and the lack of?

I think if he got a band don't think people would have complained.

He was sent to the panel I think because he got the red as per all reds. They deemed the ref had already dealt with it in the match.

I think if he had got a straight red for the second challange then he would have got banned. Again comes back to the ref's onfield view. He would have reviewed the incident during the game and would of had something about it in his match notes.

Giving a ban would mean the panel viewed the ref as being wrong.

I believe a fair result would’ve been yellow card Ball, red for POM. I find it hard to believe it’s not worthy of a straight red, even if he had already been yellowed.

Even if you ignore the Turnbull red, as I’ve said George North got four games for what was pretty much an accident. There’s nothing accidental in what POM did.

RiscaGame wrote:I believe a fair result would’ve been yellow card Ball, red for POM. I find it hard to believe it’s not worthy of a straight red, even if he had already been yellowed.

Even if you ignore the Turnbull red, as I’ve said George North got four games for what was pretty much an accident. There’s nothing accidental in what POM did.

I think the first part is what causes all this because of how the ref handled the situation.  When you get a straight red you get a ban.  When you get yellows you are normally fine from getting a ban unless it's really, really bad.  Few cards are upped from yellow to red after the fact which seems what we have here.

I am just glad their wasn't an Irish official in sight.

Like I said, I don’t buy into the conspiracies. It’s more how random bans can appear and it’s not really restricted to the Pro.

It’s interesting to read about Connacht’s travel plans tomorrow. If they win, that’s some effort.

Irish Examiner wrote: Connacht are doing a day charter to Wales for the match, leaving the Sportsground at midday for the evening game which will take place in Newport as the Arms Park is being used as part of a Covid-19 field hospital.

Having done the journey to Knock and from Cardiff or Bristol Airport (I assume the former), there’s not much margin for error.

Brendan wrote:I think the issue is that O'Mahony got a second yellow so not really a red other than couldn't play on.

I was listening to a Welsh podcast who said (and I don't think many would disagree) that the ref did a second yellow rather than a red for the second card as he bottled it.

It like previous ones where the tackle is seen by the ref and dealt with so can't be cited.

It's not the only thing that ref bottled in that game. That last quarter was him doing his absolute best to give Munster every opportunity to, implausibly, turn the game in to a contest.

That they won it due to such a monumental refereeing error to award a penalty to Munster when they'd knocked the ball on is just the cherry on top of the fecal cake.

Also O'Mahony is like the Ronan O'Gara of back rowers. He's very good at a particular kind of game but if/when the game becomes something outside his comfort zone he becomes almost a spectator in the game because he can't offer much more.

It was a cut and dry red card but not surprised at the discrepancy in refereeing. Every year we have to put up with pro-Irish nonsense while some other people either willfully or blindly pretend otherwise.

So am I missing something? Please correct me if I’m wrong. O’Mahony did a deliberate and reckless action. How is a deliberate elbow drop considered less severe? Should this not carry a ban even if it was only given a yellow (should have been an easy red) - or is there something in the rules that states a yellow card was deemed worthy enough punishment for a dangerous red card offence?

This isn’t an attack on anyone Irish, I also don’t buy into the conspiracies and enjoy mostly enjoy our rugby. I am genuinely puzzled by the lack of consistency and I’m surprised there isn’t more noise about it.

rugby racing and beer wrote:Also O'Mahony is like the Ronan O'Gara of back rowers. He's very good at a particular kind of game but if/when the game becomes something outside his comfort zone he becomes almost a spectator in the game because he can't offer much more.

It was a cut and dry red card but not surprised at the discrepancy in refereeing. Every year we have to put up with pro-Irish nonsense while some other people either willfully or blindly pretend otherwise.

Not sure why you would compare O'Mahony to O'Gara. O'Gara rarely was out of a game and he was often the one who would bring his team back into a game. Farrell is a simillar player to O'Gara, few would take Ford over him even though Ford is the more rounded player.

Regarding your Irish Bias was it the Scottish ref or Welsh assistants who were biased. Or was it the Scottish review officer. I would love to hear how you came to your conclusion.

mikey_dragon wrote:So am I missing something? Please correct me if I’m wrong. O’Mahony did a deliberate and reckless action. How is a deliberate elbow drop considered less severe? Should this not carry a ban even if it was only given a yellow (should have been an easy red) - or is there something in the rules that states a yellow card was deemed worthy enough punishment for a dangerous red card offence?

This isn’t an attack on anyone Irish, I also don’t buy into the conspiracies and enjoy mostly enjoy our rugby. I am genuinely puzzled by the lack of consistency and I’m surprised there isn’t more noise about it.

As I said previously the ref made a call and the review officer was unwilling to overturn it.  It's as simple as that.  Not sure why the assistants didnt say they felt it was deliberate and they should consider a red.  4 people on the day deemed it a yellow (taking the easy road).  There didn't seem to be any new evidence so what could be used as justification increase the severity.

If he had received a similar ban to North/Turnbull I don't think people would disagree.  It's the implication that he is Irish and that had more baring then the event, that is frustrating.

Brendan wrote:

rugby racing and beer wrote:Also O'Mahony is like the Ronan O'Gara of back rowers. He's very good at a particular kind of game but if/when the game becomes something outside his comfort zone he becomes almost a spectator in the game because he can't offer much more.

It was a cut and dry red card but not surprised at the discrepancy in refereeing. Every year we have to put up with pro-Irish nonsense while some other people either willfully or blindly pretend otherwise.

Not sure why you would compare O'Mahony to O'Gara.  O'Gara rarely was out of a game and he was often the one who would bring his team back into a game.  Farrell is a simillar player to O'Gara, few would take Ford over him even though  Ford is the more rounded player.

Regarding your Irish Bias was it the Scottish ref or Welsh assistants who were biased.  Or was it the Scottish review officer. I would love to hear how you came to your conclusion.

O'Gara couldn't tackle to save his life, was a bang average passer who couldn't really get a backline moving (you had BOD to cover for that if you didn't notice) and when he was off his game, i.e. missing kicks at goal or not nailing touch, he was hauled off for Sexton/Humphries/AN Other. Farrell is clearly not a similar player, he's not a revolving door in the tackle and although a similarly emotional player, he's also capable of playing in another position to compensate for his lack of running threat. O'Gara probably wouldn't get 10 tests in today's game. O'Mahony is a similarly limited player, great destructive back row and perfectly suits the way Ireland like to play their rugby (like ROG, the crossfield kick to Horgan that was his signature or a late drop goal seems to be given a kind of reverence in Ireland) but when they're off their game, or when the game demands a more rounded skillset, they're pants. It's a bit like the opposite ofa Fijian 7s player or something who cannot play to a structure or play 'clever' negative rugby.

Fawning to the Irish comes in many colours but Hibernian refereeing does seem to mean that the Scottish incompetence naturally fawns to the Irish because their talent pool is more like a stagnant pond and it's like they're happy to be there so don't want to rock the boat.

Brendan wrote:

mikey_dragon wrote:So am I missing something? Please correct me if I’m wrong. O’Mahony did a deliberate and reckless action. How is a deliberate elbow drop considered less severe? Should this not carry a ban even if it was only given a yellow (should have been an easy red) - or is there something in the rules that states a yellow card was deemed worthy enough punishment for a dangerous red card offence?

This isn’t an attack on anyone Irish, I also don’t buy into the conspiracies and enjoy mostly enjoy our rugby. I am genuinely puzzled by the lack of consistency and I’m surprised there isn’t more noise about it.

As I said previously the ref made a call and the review officer was unwilling to overturn it.  It's as simple as that.  Not sure why the assistants didnt say they felt it was deliberate and they should consider a red.  4 people on the day deemed it a yellow (taking the easy road).  There didn't seem to be any new evidence so what could be used as justification increase the severity.

If he had received a similar ban to North/Turnbull I don't think people would disagree.  It's the implication that he is Irish and that had more baring then the event, that is frustrating.

So it was a bad call on the field then. It’s also bad that they had the chance to rectify it off the field but didn’t, literally the same weekend as another ban is dished out for a lesser offence. That’s just shocking. My usual complaint with the league is that it’s probably the worst standard of refereeing - this weekend just reinforces that.

I think if O’Mahony did get banned a bunch of people would have said it should be longer. You can’t please everyone.

Brendan wrote:

rugby racing and beer wrote:Also O'Mahony is like the Ronan O'Gara of back rowers. He's very good at a particular kind of game but if/when the game becomes something outside his comfort zone he becomes almost a spectator in the game because he can't offer much more.

It was a cut and dry red card but not surprised at the discrepancy in refereeing. Every year we have to put up with pro-Irish nonsense while some other people either willfully or blindly pretend otherwise.

Not sure why you would compare O'Mahony to O'Gara.  O'Gara rarely was out of a game and he was often the one who would bring his team back into a game.  Farrell is a simillar player to O'Gara, few would take Ford over him even though  Ford is the more rounded player.

Regarding your Irish Bias was it the Scottish ref or Welsh assistants who were biased.  Or was it the Scottish review officer. I would love to hear how you came to your conclusion.

I think Rog is an Irish legend btw. Great player, played quite long, perhaps too long. Wallace was class and pretty good at looking after Rog...

Zebre are a walking penalty machine, that seems to be their game plan. Awful to watch at times.