Referee

[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.

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.

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.

I explained why I thought we lost the game in an earlier post.

[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?fb...&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??

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 3^rdplace 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).
Wayne Barnes.jpg

[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,