Recent content by Emmet Murphy

Has this been formally dropped? I noticed both Jonathan Kaplan and Mark Lawrence instruct players who had entered the tackle zone legally, remained on the feet as they attempted to play the ball, then being told to take their hands off it once a ruck had formed. Did anyone else notice this?

I thought Rolland was good overall. Good call with the YC. Scrums were slightly shaky. My biggest criticism would be why he did not use the TMO more often - you'd need to be very sure not to and there was one call in particular which went against Wales which was very close. EDIT: Really liked...

I wasn't really sure which forum to put this in ... hopefully Referees' General is okay! Basically I was wondering if anyone has got two spare tickets for the England V Ireland game at Twickenham. I applied through London and have got two already but I was looking for four altogether as my...

I've been watching games now for the last couple of months and have enjoyed it immensely ... something came up recently and I wondered what others would do? The ref I watched made a law-related error early on in a match: he identified the offence correctly but applied the wrong sanction. At...

http://www.sareferees.co.za/laws/laws_explained/clips/2093300.htm I was a bit disappinted to hear Barnes say this during the match but is it something that is restricted to England / British Isles?

Would give him 6 out of 10. Thought he was far too lenient with players arriving on their feet - there were a lot of pile-ups resulting in painfully slow ball. A few calls looked a bit odd - a penalty advantage to Aus last in the 1st half with a strong attacking position; Aus go nowhere and (I...

Hi all, I haven't been on here for a while ... hope you're all keeping well and enjoying the challenges of the new season! I was at the Double Header at Twickenham last weekend and felt myself getting quite itchy wanting to referee again! The situation with my back means that can't happen but I...

Did anyone think that Wallace had been tackled prior to scoring at the start of the second half? The tackler did release him quickly but I was surprised he was allowed to get back up and carry on to score.

Saw the Connaght V Munster ML Match last night ... some of the comments from the TV people were interesting: "without doubt the number one referee in Europe right now" "it's great for the players to have a referee of his standing" "Alain Rolland perfectly positioned as always" At half time...

Level 10 merit fixture. I had a phone call before I left from the home side's fixture secretary telling me there was a problem with water on some of the pitches and asking if I could come slightly earlier. I got there earlier and did a pitch nstection with the home skipper - we used the 3rd...

I was fairly excited this morning - my first Level 9 game: County 1 League game. Got to the home club and got changed but no opposition came. We waited until 20 minutes past the scheduled kick-off time and there was nothing from them. We tried ringing them using the contact number in the...

Fairly straightforward question really - 1st XV Schools match this morning. Number 8 from one side went off injured and we played on without him for a few minutes while they got a replacement from the 2nd XV match ... at scrums, I instructed both teams to go to 7 and said they had to have two...

Are players in front of a teammate who attempts a dropped-goal offside under the 10 metres law should his kick land short?

I have just found out I may have an Evergreen Cup game tomorrow. I was wondering if there is an official website for this with competition regs etc. I have googled it but only found references to the competition contained in clubs' match reports - no official website.

In my game yesterday (very fast 1st XV Schools game), there was an issue that was raised with me after the match. Players from both sides were consistently staying on their feet and consequently there was quite a lot of counter-rucking, a lot of it successful. What I was doing was allowing the...