Monthly Archives: May 2009
Neutral Refs for Lions?
An interesting article in today’s Independent newspaper on the issue of neutral referees in the forthcoming Lions’ Tests series. Can’t say I agree with it, but one or two interesting ideas badly expressed within. Would we really have picked Lawrence and Berdos as two of our Lions’ referees?
What do you think?
ERC job for Donal
Donal Courtney, the former Irish international referee, has been appointed as ERC’s first Match Officials Performance Manager. The ERC is the organising committee behind the Heineken Cup and the other various European tournaments.
Full details at http://www.ercrugby.com/eng/5019_12720.php
A day at Twickenham
We had the annual end of season Refblog family trip to Twickers yesterday for the London leg of the IRB 7s series. We usually go for the weekend but Mrs Refblog had a hen do on Sat which started at 3 so scuppered that plan. We’ve been going to the event for 7 years now. We started going when it was held in Cardiff but the WRU ran out of funds to host it so we switched to London.
We took Refblog Jnr for his first visit to HQ as well. What a great day out it was. Fab atmosphere, good company and great rugby. Mrs Refblog likes 7s – keeps her attention span and she can tune in, or out of matches depending on who’s playing. Naturally, our Kenyan heritage came out to play! It always amazes me how many Kenyan fans there are in London and they did themselves proud once again. And the players did too, winning the Bowl – I think; I lose track of which comp is which!!
Great to see my friend JP Doyle out there reffing. The boy’s had an amazing year as a full timer. I’m admittedly extremely jealous! Wonder if I’ll ever make it to those dizzy heights? Just to have the time to train would be great! He’s looking good on it too!
Anyway, great day. Some team in white scraped past the Kiwis to win the final sudden death extra time. Brilliant game to end things. Bet the organisers love it when the hosts win!
Just one bad moment – some crowd trouble in the new south stand towards the end marred things slightly. Lots of alcohol consumed being the cause. We’ve never seen any probs like that before at a rugby event and hope we don’t again.
Happy bank holiday everyone!!
Heineken Cup Final
Well, Im 38 mins in (on Sky+) and I cant say how much Nigel Owens has impressed me. OK, so there are a few things looking at his positioning, but he’s having an excellent game – in my humble opinion. Bang on with pens – the gimme’s he’s taken and the game is flowing really well. Spot on with the yellow card. No option. Early foul play pen to set the standard. Good stuff.
Leicester score. Where is Owens? Right there. Not bad for someone supposed to be overweight and slow around the park. I might have to see who is fitness advisers are!! 
Hope the 2nd half is as good!
UPDATED – it was. Still think he got it spot on. Too often, these big games turn out to be a big disappointment. Glad this one didn’t and we had a match official team adding value to the event. Good stuff!!
New law book published
Some of you may not have looked at one of these before – and that’s just the refs amongst you! Hahaha
Well, those nice IRB folks in Dublin have published the 2009 Law Book which includes all the ELVs and updates to the good book.
Download a copy here:
Also, for those officienados amongst you, the IRB have done a Law Changes Explanation guide – click here
