Domestic and European Rugby Union

[paul_e]

Been some good games today, Exeter/Leinster earlier and Saints/Ulster now have been superb.

This one is a great display of contrasting styles, Ulster are all about the set piece whilst Saints are just cutting them up in the loose.

Earlier it was just 2 top class sides smashing the shit out of each other, with Leinster just edging it.

Great games but wasn’t’t the refereeing of the saints v ulster game a bit random/shit across the board?

I was really trying not to complain about the saints ref but I think it was some of the worst I've ever seen. 2 of the Ulster tries came after they'd had 3-4 phases in a row of illegal rucks that he was just ignoring, going in off your feet every now and then can be unavoidable but when they were in the 22 they did it almost every time and he just ignored it.

What really summed it up though was at one point in the first half where he gave penalty for a saints player going in at the side and Waller asked who and when and he just refused to answer him, just repeating that he'd given the penalty 2-3 times in a row.  I went back and checked and I couldn't work out what the offence was either. The other one that bothered me was the number of times where the Ulster line out maul involved a big pack pushing saints back whilst the ball carrier rest a couple of fingers on someone and was clearly disconnected but he just ignored it. That's truck and trailer and has been treated as maul over (and a penalty for offside) for over 20 years and yet they had 3-4 examples of it.

[paul_e]

From the Bath/London Irish game on Friday there was 1 clip that should be required viewing for every back in world rugby - https://twitter.com/GrantConstable/status/1381607104352489474?s=20 - don't go high on a number 8 as a back, it's really fucking stupid.

[luke:lamf]

From the Bath/London Irish game on Friday there was 1 clip that should be required viewing for every back in world rugby - https://twitter.com/GrantConstable/status/1381607104352489474?s=20 - don't go high on a number 8 as a back, it's really fucking stupid.

Looking at that, does that not count as a shoulder charge in some way ? Because to my eyes it looks distinctly like the 8 changed direction (albeit slightly), and leaned his shoulder in and hit the face of the 10. Or does the simple possession of the ball change the rules entirely ?

[UK Redsox]

Looks like borderline foul play by the eight to me.

I know that it was his ball carrying arm, but it appears that the elbow was lifted just before contact.

[paul_e]

nah, nothing wrong with that at all, keep your forearm or elbow out of the way as best you can and don't jump into it and you're ok. dipping into tackles to ride them is human nature and I don't see anything beyond that.

It looks bad because the difference in weight and the god awful tackle attempt meant the kid got wiped out but any ref worth their salt would chalk it off as a 'rugby incident' and let the game flow.

[paul_e]

half an hour in to the first premiership game of the weekend and Alex Mitchell is on fire, how he's played in the last few games he could easily force himself into the lions squad, his pace and ball carrying is an extra dimension that none of the others in the mix are bringing.