Best Referee

Neil3030

A lot of talk recently about Barnes, Pearson and, increasingly, Owens not being up to the task. So who do people consider to be the best ref, i.e., f***s sh*t up for their team the least often?

CIARAN_BOYLE

There is no good referees, there are just ones whose screw ups haven't effected my teams recently.

To be serious the referees have a difficult job and I respect them all for doing it and to be honest I don't think I can come out and say there is a best one.

Neil3030

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

There is no good referees, there are just ones whose screw ups haven't effected my teams recently.

Question edited in OP.

Teferi

Such a thankless job.

I think our very own Alain was on better form 2 or 3 years ago then recently. Have seen him make a few dodgy decisions that he wasn't making a few seasons back. Still a very strong ref though.

Tox56

Peter Fitzgibbon??? Why is he even an option??

Conchir

Has to be Alain. I just wish he wasn't Irish so he could ref our matches.

I used to think Nigel Owens was ok, but he's getting worse and worse. Likes the sound of his own voice too much methinks.

conneem-TT

Hard to pick one out but speaking more generally when watching other sports I think we are fortunate with the culture of good communication that refereeing in rugby has.

irishbucsfan

Rolland had gone from being the best in the top tier to one of the worst. Coincided with the new laws but I don't know if that was it. Some real shockers recently.

I think Poite is top class. He's a bit lax on technical scrummaging but everything else is great imo.

corny

I think Mark Lawrence has retired from test rugby but i always found him an excellent referee.

Teferi

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I think Poite is top class. He's a bit lax on technical scrummaging but everything else is great imo.

Poite is so typically French. He mixes some truly excellent refereeing with some utter dire calls. You never know which Poite will turn up but when it's the poor one that does prefer for a long 80 minutes. I've felt he has improved in the last season or so though.

GerM

Would love to see John Lacey move up the list. He only made his HEC debut last season but is a solid referee. Very good communicator and consistent. No referee is without error but communication is one thing that is sorely lacking from several top rated referees. His age will count against him unfortunately I suspect. Not too many referees make it to the top when they only make the breakthrough at 38 or 39.

Hype710

GerM wrote: »

Would love to see John Lacey move up the list. He only made his HEC debut last season but is a solid referee. Very good communicator and consistent. No referee is without error but communication is one thing that is sorely lacking from several top rated referees. His age will count against him unfortunately I suspect. Not too many referees make it to the top when they only make the breakthrough at 38 or 39.

On the other end of the spectrum, both Owens and Rolland have been nauseating at times with their communication with players at times this past year. The Italy-Scotland game this year was effectively the Rolland show.

Brendan97

I think joubert is the best by far and he only really needs to improve on his policing of the scrum

Sport101

I miss the Changlengs, they brought a certain je ne sais quoi to the world of rugby refereeing.

[Jackass]

It's so depressing when you have to read the options twice because you didn't see any that you like.

thomond2006

Brendan97 wrote: »

I think joubert is the best by far and he only really needs to improve on his policing of the scrum

and actually reffing New Zealand.

Brendan97

thomond2006 wrote: »

and actually reffing New Zealand.

quite a few refs are guilty of letting NZ away with alot

rrpc

I think Poite has improved a hell of a lot in the last while. He's visibly got more relaxed and seems to be enjoying himself.

OTOH, Nigel has regressed, got more ill-tempered and less relaxed in the same period and gets a lot more wrong than he used to.

decisions

Used to like Owens but recently he hasn't been refing well at all. Same can be said for Alain, missing a lot of stuff you would expect him to pick up on. Still one pf the best refs going, just not in form atm.

On the flipside Poite has improved a lot recently, seems a lot more comfortable on the pitch than he used to.

Love Lacey, he's funny, very relaxed, has a laugh on the pitch but at the same time knows what he wants out of the players. I don't think I've seen him have a shocker recently unlike almost everyone on the list.

Zuffer

Nice thread.

Rolland would be the obvious choice, but he's had a few poor games over the last 12-18 months, notably when reffing minnows at the World Cup.

I've gone for George Clancy, on the basis of his recent performances, again thinking back to the World Cup in particular. He had a tendency to miss some obvious stuff earlier in his career, but you have to put aside past bad performances and focus on how he is doing now.

Flincher

I don't mind Garces as a ref. He seems to have a decent understanding of the flow of the game, and doesn't seem to be looking to be centre of attention. I remember England v Scotland last year, Poite reffed the first hour or so, and it was brutal to watch. He went off with an injury, Garces took over, and all of a sudden it turned into a much more open game.

Lacey was good when I saw him, there's a bald Scottish pro12 referee that I think does a good job very regularly.

A lot of the guys in the list have their good days and have their bad. It's the nature of the game.

There's an Irish referee in the Premiership that cut his teeth on the 7s circuit called JP Doyle. He's been getting good experience and doing well too.

Flincher

Deleted User wrote: »

There's an Irish referee in the Premiership that cut his teeth on the 7s circuit called JP Doyle. He's been getting good experience and doing well too.

Ya but

Nigel Owens "This is not Soccer"

JP Doyle "Chillax"

its graaaaaaand

durkadurka

If only Collina was into rugger.....

CatFromHue

The commentators on that ESPN clip are gas. Chillax....it's a mixture of chill...and relax!

Reminds of Jim Beglins "looks like the big toe area" comment.

Teferi

Did that JP lad used to go to Terenure? I have a feeling he used to coach me.

Teferi

Teferi wrote: »

Did that JP lad used to go to Terenure? I have a feeling he used to coach me.

sure did, back when we were in 1st year.

bilston

Despite the increasing criticsim of Owens I'm still usually happy enough to see him officiate games involving Ireland or Ulster.

Take the WC final out of the equation where he might as well have been wearing a black shirt with a silver fern on his chest and Joubert is probably the best around.

Chris Pollock seemed to handle one of Ireland's recent games pretty well, I think he's pretty new to the test circuit though so maybe he's the rising star of the refereeing world and speaking of Kiwis (or lapsed ones I suppose!) Walsh seems to have taken on a slightly better attitude since switching unions.

Poite seems a bit more chilled out these days too, although I hope he and Paulie have a few run ins on Sunday:D

.ak

I think Rolland is great. He's made some dodgy calls recently, but what ref hasn't? He's human. But I like the way he deals with teams, he's quite stern without wanting to be the center of attention. He's also probably the best ref in terms of fitness.. which helps instead of having a ref chase after a break...

Otacon

As a Munster fan I find it hard to say this, but Poite would be the best referee for me.

The only real problem he has is his communication. The amount of times I've seen him call over players for a quick word, and them walking away looking like , is bad. For a game where the referee's interpretation is important, players need to know where they stand and what will/won't be kosher.

Moflojo

Referees have it tough, but the top referees have it tougher than most when it comes to performance standards. And rightly so.

I think in one of Alan Quinlan's recent IT articles he wrote about how club/provincial video analysts will actually present reviews of upcoming referees, showing what they clamp down on but also what they tend to miss/let go. It's probably hard enough to referee the professional game without teams preying on your weaknesses too!!!

Bearing all this in mind I think most referees do a top job. The scrum is probably the area where most people have issues with the referee but I don't think referees can be blamed for that aspect of the game. I've seen pretty much every top referee struggle with scrums over the past few seasons. It's the laws that need to be changed there.

Fireball07

Moflojo wrote: »

Referees have it tough, but the top referees have it tougher than most when it comes to performance standards. And rightly so.

I think in one of Alan Quinlan's recent IT articles he wrote about how club/provincial video analysts will actually present reviews of upcoming referees, showing what they clamp down on but also what they tend to miss/let go. It's probably hard enough to referee the professional game without teams preying on your weaknesses too!!!

Bearing all this in mind I think most referees do a top job. The scrum is probably the area where most people have issues with the referee but I don't think referees can be blamed for that aspect of the game. I've seen pretty much every top referee struggle with scrums over the past few seasons. It's the laws that need to be changed there.

I agree the scrum is a mess and the laws need to be changed. It is very hard for the refs but it can be frustrating at times for fans when it seems like they don't even try to discern what is going on.


The breakdown is the other issues, there's way too much inconsistency and generally the best refs are the ones who ref that properly.

Riskymove

GerM wrote: »

His age will count against him unfortunately I suspect. Not too many referees make it to the top when they only make the breakthrough at 38 or 39.

in fairness, the fact he was playing rugby at a reasonable level up until becoming a Ref should stand to him

He's also still in very good shape and can really keep up with play as a result. Given that he has gone from starting as a ref to reffing Heinken Cup and Tpouch Judge at 6Nations in about 3 or 4 seasons, I see no reason why he cannot step up again in the near future

Aidric

Who the fock picked Jonathan Kaplan? The guy is a jokeshop.

I love this video of Steve Walsh winking, prancing about and playing up to the camera.

the_blackstuff

Went for Rolland myself. We actually have a few good Irish guys around at the minute, Lacey and Clancy spring to mind also. They all miss stuff but surely their touch judges should take the blame along with them. Was at the munster match at the weekend and botha broke every rule in the book as far as i was concerned. All the time Owens was after Horan and Ross. This was under the touch judges nose and they had no input. For me it nearly comes down now to how a ref polices the scrum its nearly a lottery at this stage what the decision is going to be.

decisions

The tall Irish ref who refs a lot in the rabo isnt that bad either, think I saw him run the line once during the six nations. But take out the Irish refs and your not left with a lot.

Have to agree with the touch judges not getting much input in the game, them and the tmos need to have a bigger say. A captin/ref should be able to have a high tackle, late hit or dangerous play looked at during the game. It wouldn't take that long, if it's there why not use it.

Teferi

While I agree that the remit of the TMO has to be extended I would not like them to be able to have a say at every part of the game including stuff like dangerous play. The two touch judges and the ref should be able to come to an agreement about 99% of the game.

TheSpecialOne

Went for Nigel think he is top notch even after the Munster/Leinster Scrum farce, would have Craig Joubert a close second! Really not seeing were the love for Poite is coming from... I think he is woefully poor along with Clancy and Barnes who are average at best.

decisions

On occasions where the ref/touch judge hasn't seen something fully or hasn't got a number there is no reason for the ref not being able to ask for the TMOs assistance. Ideally the 3 on the pitch should be able to sort it out between themselves but that dosent always happen unfortunately. And I'm not talking about all foul play but spears, v late hits and punch ups should be looked at IMO.

Teferi

decisions wrote: »

On occasions where the ref/touch judge hasn't seen something fully or hasn't got a number there is no reason for the ref not being able to ask for the TMOs assistance. Ideally the 3 on the pitch should be able to sort it out between themselves but that dosent always happen unfortunately. And I'm not talking about all foul play but spears, v late hits and punch ups should be looked at IMO.

I think your suggestion is White Card territory. Strong refs would only use the TMO very rarely while weak refs could end up constantly using the TMO so they couldn't be blamed for any mistakes afterwards.