Great news for Ian Cook

[chief]

Stuart Dickinson will referee the Crusaders v Bulls clash in Soweto after Marius Jonker's interesting display.

Mark Lawrence will referee the other semi with the Waratahs and Stormers.

 

[Robert Burns]

lol,

I like the way PR has claimed it was a call for a Neutral Referee, when it was published before the last round of games!

 

[chief]

lol,

I like the way PR has claimed it was a call for a Neutral Referee, when it was published before the last round of games!

They hadn't decided which referee for each semi, they just had decided the two refs who will be reffing the semi's. Dickinson was realistically never going to ref the Tahs.

 

[Ian_Cook]

Absolutely wonderful!!!

We might as well can the plane trip now, and put the money we save on a good old fashioned end of season piss-up!!

The only thing we can hope for is that Lyndon Bray gave Dickinson a "POB style" rocket after his abysmal performance in the Stormers match, although I cannot see how he (SD) could possibly have gained a sufficient understanding of scrummaging in just three weeks.

 

[Robert Burns]

Crusaders need to ensure they play better in other areas too then....

He'll be ok Ian, I'm sure it'll be an ok game in the end and the deserved team will win by their actions on the park, and not by the refs.

 

[Ian_Cook]

I wish I could be as confident about SD's performance as you are. He appears to have learned nothing from his train wreck at San Siro last year, where he continually allowed the Italian front row to lift, twist, bore in and drop the scrum, and then penalised Tialata for being unable to cope with the illegalities that his opponent was being allowed to commit with impunity.

His scrum management in the Stormers match was just a carbon copy of that match.

Much as I dislike the idea of a hometown referee, I would rather have seen Joubert in charge of this match. He is undoubtedly the best referee in SANZAR, and his scrum management is second to none world-wide (with the possible exception of Alain Rolland).

 

[Robert Burns]

I'd argue Roman Poite too..

 

[Ian_Cook]

I'd argue Roman Poite too..

Haven't see enough of him to know. I think he was the ref who controlled Munster v New Zealand a year or two back. If so, don't recall any issues.

Just as an aside, I watched the Top14 play-off match between Perpignan & Toulouse last night.

I don't know who that referee was, but he had an interesting take on the offside law.... there isn't one, or most of the time there wasn't anyway.

Nor did there appear to be any requirement for tacklers to release or roll away, or for tackled players to release the ball to the man on his feet (on the odd occasion that someone actually stayed on their feet anyway).

It also seemed that running around the fringes of the ruck and taking out the SH, pillars and guards was perfectly acceptable. :chin:

 

[Robert Burns]

Yep, that's French Rugby Alright!

 

[chief]

Yeah yeah Ian, at least we know it'll be a good contest at the rucks with a dominant team winning. As well Lyndon Bray knows nothing about the scrum either. Alain Rolland doesn't really know too much. Gotta agree about Poite. But how can anyone over look Wayne Barnes an excellent scrum referee.

 

[Dixie]

Joubert ... is undoubtedly the best referee in SANZAR, and his scrum management is second to none world-wide (with the possible exception of Alain Rolland).

I'd argue Roman Poite too..

The Poite bandwagon (for my money) elevates the attraction of decisiveness above the advantages of accuracy. Once he's decided which scrum is the most powerful, he'll ping the weaker team when there is a collapse - and that seems to be the sum total of the analysis in many cases. He doesn't seem to have considered that a powerful scrummaging side on the oppo 10m line may prefer 3 points obtained by engineering a collapse to the possibility of launching a running attack from 1st phase ball with set defences.