Referee

[Dai 55]

what a terrible error the poxy ref made ruined a game were we would have smashed the frogs,yellow card yes but sending off pathetic should have beaten them with 14 men but Wales done us proud for all the fans who travelled over the ref has taken history away from you i hope he comes out and explaines his error,just a shocking shocking joke,

[chow]

Totally agree Dai.

Wales were robbed,the tackle was a sin bin offence not a red card.
the ref needs to explain his call.
but the boys did so well with a man down,
well done to Wales..

[Braz]

Robbed by an Irish Ref again!!! The Lads Played Well only to be robbed by a Stupid Poxy Official, yet again. Why can't the Ref situation be sorted out. If the F#k up then dont use them in a big game again. Braz. Extrtemely Pis#e# Off, weekend ruined. Suppose I'll have to have a few Jars to drown out the pain.

[Owen W]

I am an entertainer
And I sing for charity,
For Oxfam and for Shelter,
For those worse off than me.

Bangladesh, Barnardo's Homes,
And though I don't get paid
It does one good to do some work
For things like Christian Aid.

But of all the concerts that I've done
For the homeless overseas
The one I did that pleased me most
Was not for refugees.

'Twas for a home in Ireland
That stands amongst the trees,
The Sunshine Home in Dublin
For blind Irish Referees!

..........as Max Boyce would say!

Owen W........shocked and saddened

[Alun Cleaver]

It was not a bad decision, it was a deliberate decisionby a half French half Irish match official who has a history of doing down Wales. It was not however why we lost. We lost because Rhys Priestland was injured, Adam Jones got injured, wannabe Hook was a disaster and (seen betterdays) Jones refused to get into the pocket and have a go

[keithwill38]

Alun and of course you forgot to mention the kick we did not score with

[Dai 55]

Alun it was a shocker and of course it cost us the game we went down to 14 men even though we almost won we would have won by 20 points with 15 now Wharburton has had a 3 week ban PATHETIC

[keithwill38]

It did not help only having 14 men,but add to that the rubbish lineout again,the missed kicks and of course the 3 penalties that France did kick

[jcj]

We are starting to look like a Nation of whingers, ok the red card was a harsh decision and no doubt we would have won if it had been a yellow.But the ref was sticking to the letter of the law and to say he was biased etc is totally wrong. If it had been Wayne Barnes I think the outcome would have been the same, also how would we have reacted if a French player had been sent off for the same offence? We had enough chances to win that game even without Wharburton.In my humble opinion what did for us was <o:p></o:p>
· The missed kicks.<o:p></o:p>
· Losing Adam Jones.<o:p></o:p>
· Hook having a poor game.<o:p></o:p>
· Stephan Jones not getting in the pocket to bang a drop over. <o:p></o:p>
I also believe the RWC organisers should take more care of who refs which game to avoid any poo traps that may occur e.g. Look at the stick that Nigel Owens faced after the Samoa game. <o:p></o:p>

[Bob Lloyd]

Reminded me of 16 Feb 1980 when England beat Wales 9-8 at Twickenham. Another Irish referee (Burnett) sent off Paul Ringer for 'brushing off the England fly half's (Horton) mascara'! Wales scored two tries then but try only worth 4 pts. Wales woud have won by today's score.
Anyway cheer up the world knows that France were not the 2nd best (or best) team in the tournament. True measure of best team in the world is IRB rankings and ABs have been first for many a year.
Finally without referees there are no games. They are only human, and I don't think we really want to go to the TMO all the time. Perhaps the IRB are at fault - would they have appointed a referee for that match who claimed to be Irish but had a Welsh name, a Welsh father and spoke Welsh. I doubt it! Refs for the S-F should have been the other way round.

[Alun Cleaver]

If you read the many posts on the net about young Sam’s red card the consensus of opinion seems to be the ref was right. Obviously many of these posts are from people who are happy to see Wales lose but many pointed out that if the ref made the correct decision then the laws of the game need looking at. Too late for us now and it makes me wonder if it is our destiny to always be the bridesmaid.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
One thing no one can deny is Alain Rolland was the wrong choice of referee for the game. As an Irishman he must have been gutted when Ireland went out. Likewise he would have been gutted again if France fell by the wayside, especially to the same team who knocked the men in green. I’m not saying he’s bent, just pointing out he has allegiances to both Ireland and France and therefore was the wrong choice of ref.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
There were other so-called spear tackles in the competition, none of which receive a red card. In every case afterwards the offending player was cited and banned from playing for a few weeks. None of the offenders’ teams had to play with 14 men for more than 10 minutes. If we had been refereed in the same way Sam may not have played in the final but his team probably would have.<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
I explained why I thought we lost the game in an earlier post.<o:p></o:p>

[Rog Ball 01]

I agree with Bob Lloyd, the Ref should have come from the Southern Hemisphere.

I'm not passing the buck, but what do our qualified rereree's (Dia 72 and Gen Porter) have to say about the matter. I personally believe that Sam was very unfortunate to be sent off, but he did infrindge the rules. I also think that the 3 match ban is also harsh.

Roger

[keithwill38]

It was a directive from the IRB that dangerous tackles would be met with the ultimate punishment, before the RWC started,all team managements were informed of this and i expect it was passed down to the playing staff,if other referees missed or did not punish dangerous tackles with a red card in previous games surely it is those referees that are in the wrong by ignoring the IRB,s directive and not the referee on the day,personally i think Alain Rollan is a referee of high integrity and the French Ireland connection did not enter into his decision to red card Sam Warburton,as i said in my previous post it did not help having 14 men,but bad lineout,missed kicks and the penalties given away which allowed the French to achieve 9 points did not help either

[dutchman]

if's and an's pot's and pan's , if my granny hab b*****s she would be my grandad etc etc ,at the end of the day we lost, nothing will change that but i for one am a very very proud welshman today . from start to finish we played with skill pride and grit and at last showed on the world stage that hopefully we are on the up .
well done to sam and the boys you made what was turning into a very s*** time for myself into a very very very good two months.

[Bob Lake]

I am bursting with pride for what our boys have achieved on and off the pitch and how much it meant to us all in Wales, but we can't get away from the fact that it was a spear tackle and Wales lost, not because we were down a man but because we missed ourr kicks and, whilst camped on the French 25 in the last ten minutes, Steven Jones, perhaps, chickened out of getting into a position to drop a goal, opting to run and losing the ball in the process. He was rusty for sure.

Interestingly, the Western Mail printed the law out, which seems conclusive, but included; 'the memorandum went on to say Referees and Citing Commissioners should not make their decisions based on what they consider was the intention of the offending player. Their decision should be based on an objective assessment of the circumstances of the tackle' - my problem with the blind Irish Referee is that he did not take time to consider the circumstances and in my view was affected by the reaction of the French players.

The IRB may stand by their referee but they cannot claim consistency in the application of their memoranda. Many of them remain open to the interpretation of referees after issue. Take putting the ball in straight, for example, a memorandum of two years ago is blithely ignored by referees today, as the great Gareth Edwards pointed out in Scrum Five.

I hope and wish that this great side will use this travesty to fire their future performances.

Try this URL

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=205837482817929&set=p.205837482817929&type=1&ref=nf

[bennyball2]

Firstly what is a spear tackle:A spear tackle is when you lift an opponent in the air, turn him upside down whilst in the air and force him or drop him to the ground head first. It is very, very dangerous and should be penalised, with a red card or yellow at least. So the question is was it a spear tackle, did Warburton tackle him with the intention of spearing him into the ground? It states that the ref should start at a red and work back, So was the intention there to spear the player? did he carry it through to a spear tackle? did he slam him into the ground? I think most would agree that he was guilty of lifting in the air, but let go of him, should he have kept hold of him? the heat of the moment comes to mind. What has this done for other refs, does it mean that for every tackle where they take the opponent into the air should they be given a red card. I think he was a bit to quick issuing the red, maybe the french charging in straight after the tackle had that effect, didn't they break any rules by doing this? Yep I do agree that the kicks could have won us the game, and was praying for the drop goal at the end. There have been worse tackles in this world cup and I think that decision has made it really hard for refs in the future, where they will not be able to make a decision on how they see it, but what the rule book says? never mind just booked Friday off instead of Monday. Thanks ref you really messed my plans for the weekend, should have been down the Hafad rugby club at 0730 sunday morning:arghh:??

Ok question for you all: Name four ways you can score a try without crossing the try line.

[Keith Jones 989]

Just managed to catch the last few minutes of the match and I have to say that if EVER any divine intervention (Max Boyce style!) was deserved it was for six or so inches of 'lift' to help Halfpenny's final place kick over the bar.

[Paul Hinge]

I'm so proud of what those 14 men achieved on the field of play they played for the shirt, they played for their nation and they played as a team. Sam Warburton's sending off was not called for a yellow card yes but not a red. However as Keith said, it was an IRB directive at the begining of the competition so everyone knew the consequences. Had Sam had a yellow card then he would have still missed the final (had Wales gone on to win).
The bottom line was 3 penalties missed 1 conversion missed had they gone over it would have been a 19-9 win to Wales with 14 men on the park for two-thirds of a RWC semi-final.......now that would be a story to tell the great-grandchildren......but it was not to be. Wales has shown the rugby world that they were the best team in the competition to not win the RWC so as a proud Welshman I'm gushing with pride that those lads went out to NZ to represent my country and played their hearts out and we can be so very very proud of every single one of them......despite the interventions of an Irish referee with a French Father!

Hingey

[jcj]

Oh No

Englishman Wayne Barnes will take charge of the 3rdplace play off clash between Australia and Wales in Auckland on Friday. He will be supported on the field by assistant referees Romain Poite (France) and George Clancy (Ireland).
2548

[Dai 55]

Benny spot on about the spear tackle Wharburton had no intention on spearing him into the floor and let him go onto his back yes it was wrong and no more than a yellow card of course the English are going to say it was a sending off but i would have liked to see the reaction if it was a Englishman,JCJ i dont think we are whinging but disapointed with a bad call i am sure if Wharburton speared him into the floor we would all agree with the refs call red card,but he did not and the ref got it wrong full stop.I can look at 3 tackles in the WORLD CUP were yellow cards were issued only for the players to be cited and banned all 3 were worse than wharburtons and only yellow carded by the ref,and finally listening to opinions from past international refs 90% were in favour the ref should have issued a yellow,i also put some blame on the french for there reaction to the ref after the tackle and the player on the ground you would have thought he had been shot when there was nothing wrong with him,so on that note i hope New Zealand stuff the frogs,

[keithwill38]

I see Warren Gatland has said he is committed to stay coach untill 2015,good news that

[Dai 55]

Could be in a bit of hot water saying they thought about fakeing an injury?keep those comments to yourself i say

[Gwyn Nicholas]

Could be in a bit of hot water saying they thought about fakeing an injury?keep those comments to yourself i say

Whats a bit of honesty doing in a place like sport do you mean Dai. Time will tell in the long term how bad,and I mean how bad was this whole debacle. Given the betting scandal in recent months over football betting, Racing Betting etc.....how much was it worth as a straight double, France to play a Southern hemisphere team in the final and the Southern Hemisphere retaining the World Cup. Someone in a career of limited longevity may do very well from such a bet but from a number of interested parties...well the sky is the limit I suppose. Not that I would suggest that anything Illegal took place over this incident.

Judge a man not by his thoughts but rather his deeds.

[sid burns]

A must see on you tube, type in "warren gatland hitler" it's brilliant :laugh:

[Bob Lloyd]

Also look on You Tube at Tom Palmer's tackle on Dan Lydiate during W v E 2011 6 Nations. Guess who was the ref - yep, you got it, Allain Rolland, and not even a penalty nor a citing after the match. It was in open play so he and the TJ must have seen it. Consitency or what?

[Dai72]

The Welsh Coach's have looked at that, spoke to Rob Howley in a NZ resturant last nite!!! Off to the game tonite (sponsors box) Army play Australia tomo for defence world cup.

[rikoshea]

at the end of the day the three games we lost, is because we kicked penelties like the english football team. if we had made them kickes we would have been un beaten going into the final. yes the ref made the mistake (maybe) but our kicking was c- - p

[Dai72]

The Welsh Coach's have looked at that, spoke to Rob Howley in a NZ resturant last nite!!! Off to the game tonite (sponsors box) Army play Australia tomo for defence world cup.

British Army bt Australia Defence Forces 62-17 in the final. Allain Roland in the crowd!!!

[Dai 55]

Rik dont bring football into it mate,as we dont even have a team

[rikoshea]

exactly Dai, but we still kicked penelties like the english football team.

[jase hill]

Sorry to bring football into it Dai, but we do have a team, and actually a very promising group of young players. Never watched any of the rugby myself but I believe Wales did ok.

[Dai 55]

Jase exactly right a very promising group of players,yes mate Wales done well just very poor kicking cost us i dont get involved in all this Wales England stuff,my family are all English yes the football team dont perform to there expected levels but i do support them when they play along with all the other home nation teams,Wales rugby will deffo go on from here sometimes you need a little rub of the green and the captain certainly cost us a good chance of winning the world cup,cheers mate