I am surprised that he is going to referee Ireland's match this weekend after what happened on Sunday. Surely this only adds to the pressure he will be under and will open a sizeable can of worms should he make any errors which go the way of the French.
Maybe that's the problem - if they can appoint referees at short notice during the knock-out stages of the World Cup then why can they not do the same here too? I sincerely hope he has a good game but he will be under more pressure than normal and I don't think that's fair on him or on the teams.
I am surprised that he is going to referee Ireland's match this weekend after what happened on Sunday. Surely this only adds to the pressure he will be under and will open a sizeable can of worms should he make any errors which go the way of the French.
Anything that involves a tip-tackle maybe? Or are we going to make the players promise to be good boys for the full 80 minutes and not do anything which might embarrass Mr Pearson or the IRB?
Why should he be dropped as a Referee for a mistake he possibly made as an Assistant Referee? Two different roles. And it would cause more issues than it would solve as Dave Pearson will have been mentally preparing himself for this game for a few weeks.
Maybe that's the problem - if they can appoint referees at short notice during the knock-out stages of the World Cup then why can they not do the same here too? I sincerely hope he has a good game but he will be under more pressure than normal and I don't think that's fair on him or on the teams.
I'm not sure about 'possibly' made a mistake - he definitely made a colossal mistake and really whether or not he was the referee / touch judge is irrelevant - it was him, Dave Pearson! But as Taff has said the appointments are made well in advance of the game and that is what needs looking at. If referees at the RWC can mentally prepare for games with only a few days' notice then they can do it at other times also - he does not need weeks to mentally prepare! The argument for resting him, or for shunting him to another fixture, is that it would remove him from an environment where far greater scrutiny will be placed upon him than normal. There is no way the TV people will overlook that in the build-up and it will be on the players' minds also. It's all avoidable by making the appointments public within the week leading up to the game.
I do sincerely hope it goes well for him because he's a referee I like and admire a great deal. But I think the IRB are tempting fate here a little. If it does go tits up then a lot of people will be questioning this appointment given what happened against Wales.
I don't think the flights would be an issue - they all travel business class anyway don't they! And a lot of the RWCs are spread overal several countries of course - they aren't all in one country. Hopefully he'll have a great game and prove me to have been completely wrong!
He will have been given a chance to review the incident, explain why he said yellow, be councilled that it should have been red, and will learn from it.
This is what we would all hope would happen when we make a mistake. Just because his was a bigger game is no need to get harsh.
If by miracle Davies is not suspended, do you think Wales will drop him for carrying out the tackle (which was a huge mistake on his part)? No, they will tell hime not to do it and he will be back on the pitch again.
I don't think the flights would be an issue - they all travel business class anyway don't they! And a lot of the RWCs are spread overal several countries of course - they aren't all in one country. Hopefully he'll have a great game and prove me to have been completely wrong!
well, the mistake was that the description didn't meet the correct card colour and that he failed to report that the player had been dropped on their back/neck. If he saw the lift, twist and drop, surely he saw that the drop was almost onto his head?
I'm not sure about 'possibly' made a mistake - he definitely made a colossal mistake and really whether or not he was the referee / touch judge is irrelevant - it was him, Dave Pearson!
You may be on to something with that one. If it was down to me (it isn't) perhaps that's the way I'd do it; ie make the appointment and let the refs etc know in ample time, but don't make them public till 6 days before. Why make a possible rod for your own back when you don't need to?
Removing him from an elite international appointment for one contentious AR recommendation (re YC or RC), which is now subject to citing action ? It was a mistake, and a serious one to many of you, but come on guys, get into the real world. Yes DP may have made an error, but all referees are human and de-selecting him from his next match in the middle is as good as ending his international career.
DP is an IRB official of some season's standing, and he was a RWC referee. Unlike the RWC where there is a resident pool of match officials full time on site (or close by), other International Appointments are (as has been said already) made some time in advance, after much discussion and planning. And all referees have to fit their international appointments around their job, even if that job in some cases is as a full time professional referee.
For these Elite Referees there are a host of other top level (ERC), and RFU matches (Premiership) that they are appointed to, and changing that at the last moment can have significant knock-on effects on a number of other match officials, only a few of whom are full time salaried RFU Match Officials. Injury sometimes causes re-appointments of course.
As far as travel costs are concerned, I suspect the IRB is like any modern international business - short haul (under four hours) is economy and cheapest flight, non flex if possible and if a fixed schedule allows for it. Long haul (over 4 hours) usually premium economy, possibly business class for very senior execs. The days of everyone sitting up-front in BA are long gone - I and most of my colleagues use EasyJet and FlyBe for European flights to minimise travel costs, as do many others going on their passenger number growth and the obvious "businessmen" I see on my EasyJet / FlyBe flights. All flights are booked as far in advance as possible to minimise costs - our analysis shows that leaving it below 7 days to book will often see all the lowest price seats have gone (both EasyJet and FlyBe use a quota system in bands of price as standard, and then override to reduce prices closer to flight day if they still have unsold seats).
Removing him from an elite international appointment for one contentious AR recommendation (re YC or RC), which is now subject to citing action ? It was a mistake, and a serious one to many of you, but come on guys, get into the real world. Yes DP may have made an error, but all referees are human and de-selecting him from his next match in the middle is as good as ending his international career.
Agree 100% Simon.
Wanting DP hung & quartered and then dropped from his next appointment is a massive over reaction. Yes, we all agree that the wrong colour card was given in the Davies incident. I would say that DP knew that the second he saw a replay. I would think that he is now less likely to ever make that mistake again. The inference that Ireland will be hard done by in having DP referee their next 6N match is simply nonsense.
I agree "dropping him" would be silly, that said, IF we have another tackle similar to the off the ball incident that DP reported on Sat and DP sees it, gives the correct RC, the press/pundits/armchair refs...... (keep adding) will have a bloody field day !
Why should he be dropped as a Referee for a mistake he possibly made as an Assistant Referee? Two different roles. And it would cause more issues than it would solve as Dave Pearson will have been mentally preparing himself for this game for a few weeks.
He was an official, and in that capacity many feel he contributed to Ireland's defeat. He will be an official in a game involving Ireland. It's going to be a tough gig.
Please consider the potential for your language to give gratuitous offence. This particular wording could even get the website into trouble with the CRE - let alone yourself. The Mods may wish to give some thought to a bit of judicious redaction.
Removing him from an elite international appointment for one contentious AR recommendation (re YC or RC), which is now subject to citing action ? It was a mistake, and a serious one to many of you, but come on guys, get into the real world. Yes DP may have made an error, but all referees are human and de-selecting him from his next match in the middle is as good as ending his international career.
If that is indeed the case, then the system is flawed and can easily be changed. Soccer/football is very comfortable publicly recognising a referee's significant error by dropping him from his next scheduled game, and indeed everyone else on the field would expect to be dropped for a poor performance. Examples of soccer refs being appointed away from their next game include:
June 2010: PRETORIA, South Africa – Controversial referee Koman Coulibaly was left off FIFA’s list for the next batch of World Cup matches following the error that likely cost the United States a victory against Slovenia.
Yahoo! Sports revealed on Friday that Coulibaly was “highly unlikely” to take any further part in the tournament after being given a poor evaluation by assessors following his decision to disallow Maurice Edu’s 85th-minute goal.
Aug 2007: Referee Rob Styles will not officiate in the Premier League next weekend following his performance in the Liverpool-Chelsea game on Sunday. Styles was criticised for awarding a controversial penalty to Chelsea.
April 2010: Referee Mike Dean demoted after Manchester United v Chelsea errors. Assistant referee Beck also dropped. United manager Ferguson criticised both officials
Oct 2009: Sunderland beat Liverpool 1-0 thanks to a fifth-minute goal from Darren Bent which beat Pepe Reina only after striking a beach ball thrown from the crowd by a Liverpool fan.
It later emerged that Jones should have ruled the goal out and, instead, ordered a free-kick after the ball struck an “outside agent”. Jones has not been taken off the list, as often happens when a referee errs, though he has been given a game outside the Premier League.
He was an official, and in that capacity many feel he contributed to Ireland's defeat. He will be an official in a game involving Ireland. It's going to be a tough gig.
He saw and reported an incident of foul play. His error was seeing it as yellow rather than red - we don't know why he did that. How often should we expect to drop officials for awarding a YC to a player who then gets cited and banned? Was it really a significant part of the reason Ireland lost? How much say should the teams have in the choice of officials?
Soccer/football is very comfortable publicly recognising a referee's significant error by dropping him from his next scheduled game, and indeed everyone else on the field would expect to be dropped for a poor performance.
idon't think DP will get a hard time anyway -- outside the rarified atmosphere of rugbyrefs.com I don't think people are that bothered. I don't expect people to be discussing it at my rugby club on Sunday the way they all discussed AR and Warburton.
