RWC, Quality of rugby so far?

owen09

I think English and French performance were fairly bad. They may of won but still very messy play and alot of mistakes. Japan showed consistant play.

Celly Smunt

It really depends on the day with rugby and the referee too. I don't think I've watched a messy Nigel Owens game but have watched far too many messy Barnes games.

The sin bin was basically ignored yesterday in the french game which should have been utilised numerous times

owen09

Very true point, French always have a messy game and should of been at least 3 sin bins there. I thought French and Italy game was a bad game to watch, was not interesting

Bandana boy

Hard to judge the French game fairly , following the Boks v Japan it was always going to be an impossible task to match that level of excitement

nehe milner skudder

craig "roll away this instant " joubert

Eoinbmw

Excitement has been immense really enjoying the "minows" putting it up to the big boys!
The organisation and quality of the weaker nations is much improved making for a much better tournament so far!

lunarhog

Japan SA game very exciting and Tonga Georgia also. I enjoyed samoa today too. Ireland Wales and England all with decent but not flawless starts. Watching the all blacks game today I felt both teams were a slight level above the 6 nations sides

Celly Smunt

lunarhog wrote: »

Japan SA game very exciting and Tonga Georgia also. I enjoyed samoa today too. Ireland Wales and England all with decent but not flawless starts. Watching the all blacks game today I felt both teams were a slight level above the 6 nations sides

I felt that we could have competed well against either side today if we organised our defence well, especially with the indiscipline.

lunarhog

Celly Smunt wrote: »

I felt that we could have competed well against either side today if we organised our defence well, especially with the indiscipline.

Yes true I'm sure we would manage. Imagine if the pumas had won. France and Ireland would be trying to lose the last game

efb

I felt Barnes had a good game today.

Stheno

efb wrote: »

I felt Barnes had a good game today.

Barnes and Owens (unsurprisingly) the stand out refs of the weekend for me.

Peyper and Joubert were dreadful

lunarhog

I'm just glad we don't have Georgia or Japan in our group!

iroced

Stheno wrote: »

Barnes and Owens (unsurprisingly) the stand out refs of the weekend for me.

Peyper and Joubert were dreadful

The thing with Joubert is he's not a ref, he's a spectator. He just watches the game and blows his whistle when he's stuck. There was a hilarious moment yesterday where he seemed to ask Dusautoir and an Italian player what to do about a scrum (like: to Italian guy "you made the foul so scrum to France alright", to Dusautoir "you're OK with it?") :pac: :rolleyes:...

Nothing ever surprises me now.

AbusesToilets

I think some of the penalising for not rolling away after the tackle has been very harsh. It's good that refs are looking to cut down on illegal slowing of the ball, but when the tackler immediately starts trying to shrimp out of the way and you blow him up for it; what else can he do? Joubert was pretty eager on that call this wknd.

Stheno

AbusesToilets wrote: »

I think some of the penalising for not rolling away after the tackle has been very harsh. It's good that refs are looking to cut down on illegal slowing of the ball, but when the tackler immediately starts trying to shrimp out of the way and you blow him up for it; what else can he do? Joubert was pretty eager on that call this wknd.

Joubert is a stupid ref

vienne86

Stheno wrote: »

Joubert is a stupid ref

I don't like him at all. Barnes was very good yesterday. I thought at first he was favouring NZ, but was wrong. Very fair and very clear.

Akrasia

Joubert always gets in the way of the game. His decision making is baffling at times

It's one thing penalising infringements, but if you blow up for every niggly little thing that you notice (or imagine), then there is no hope of a game of free flowing rugby

He's going to be the referee for our next game against Romania. it'll be interesting to see how the Irish can play him. If we can hold our discipline, we could just be handed the game through Romanian errors and infringements.

Jerome Garces will be our referee against Italy
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/news/78669

Jerome Garces is a bit niggly on the scrum but judging by the Italian French game, we should't be overly concerned with the italian scrum.

The Lost Sheep

Akrasia wrote: »

Joubert always gets in the way of the game. His decision making is baffling at times

It's one thing penalising infringements, but if you blow up for every niggly little thing that you notice (or imagine), then there is no hope of a game of free flowing rugby

He's going to be the referee for our next game against Romania. it'll be interesting to see how the Irish can play him. If we can hold our discipline, we could just be handed the game through Romanian errors and infringements.

Jerome Garces will be our referee against Italy
http://www.rugbyworldcup.com/news/78669

Jerome Garces is a bit niggly on the scrum but judging by the Italian French game, we should't be overly concerned with the italian scrum.

Where does it state a game must be free flowing? The sport runs on interpretation of the laws. If a referee blows whistle for all offences then that is fine if they are correctly following the laws book. Most referees will use advantage in many cases but by blowing up for everything, regardless of what offence is, the referee is just following the laws book. Nothing wrong with it. Teams just have to deal with it

Akrasia

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Where does it state a game must be free flowing? The sport runs on interpretation of the laws. If a referee blows whistle for all offences then that is fine if they are correctly following the laws book. Most referees will use advantage in many cases but by blowing up for everything, regardless of what offence is, the referee is just following the laws book. Nothing wrong with it. Teams just have to deal with it

Rugby is a spectator sport. The referee's role is to make sure both teams play fair and keep control of the game. His job is to facilitate the game of rugby. This is why they'll usually bring out yellow cards when the penalty count gets too high. The referee does have a role to keep the ball in play. He calls 'Use It' when the scrum half tries to slow down the rucks etc
If a game descends into a turgid affair of stops and starts and dozens of penalties, this is just as much the fault of the referee as it is the players.

The Lost Sheep

Akrasia wrote: »

Rugby is a spectator sport. The referee's role is to make sure both teams play fair and keep control of the game. His job is to facilitate the game of rugby. This is why they'll usually bring out yellow cards when the penalty count gets too high. The referee does have a role to keep the ball in play. He calls 'Use It' when the scrum half tries to slow down the rucks etc
If a game descends into a turgid affair of stops and starts and dozens of penalties, this is just as much the fault of the referee as it is the players.

The referees role is to facilitate the game. It cant totally be the fault of a referee if there is loads of penalties and most blame has to go to the players if a game is stop start. If a referee penalises offences by each side they are only doing as the law book allows them to.

Christy42

I saw the commentators complain about this in the USA Somoa game. Surely the onus is on the Eagles to stop breaking the rules of the game? They kept calling them harsh as a lot of the time USA weren't getting any benefit from breaking the rules but why did they do it then? I did think a card should have come out, they have been a bit slow with the cards so far unless forced.

I do like the TMOs stopping the ref to point out something they saw, it slows down the game but it will speed up once players (McCaw) realise they will get caught and stop breaking the rules of the game.

Redgirl82

For the arguments about ref's. Take a listen to Brian Moore Full Contact Rugby podcast. He has a weekly bit with Nigel Owens. They discuss topics/points about what the ref should/should not do according to rule book. Also have previously discussed the TMO in length