Neil F wrote:
The referee was poor. No doubt about that. I wouldn't call bias but he ruined the first 40 minutes as a spectacle, that's for sure.
Neil,
He kind of has to punish infringements. Ulster made it too easy for him to give penalties in the first half by doing very silly things in a very obvious manner. That is the one major learning Ulster need to take from this game, well that and scoring tries which should be scored. All champion teams engage in over the line infringing without getting pinged. Leinster do it very well, Munster used to do it at least as well when at their best, NZ do it all the time and are the best at it, even SA learned how to do it to an extent after getting blown off the park throughout the early 90's.....though it may be unfair to include SA as they were not just silly but filthy as well which Ulster/Leinster/Munster certainly are not.
Lacey made a couple of criminal errors in the scrum. It is his major area of weakness. He allowed Leinster way too much latitude and on a couple of occasions could have at least issued warnings to go with penalties. Boss could have been yellowed at one point and defintely should have been penalised on a couple of occasions. Ross was dropping the scrum all day or trying to do so and should have been penalised. One penalty given against Court was correct as he was going in sideways against the hooker but Leinster definitely got away with a lot in the scrum.
As for Henry, he was lucky the ref wasn't looking directly at him or he would have been yellowed. Indeed it could be argued he should have been yellowed well before that as he was infringing from the first whistle to the last as you expect and want him to do. The fact he got away with only penalties given against him means he is one of the players who is on the road to where he needs to get to.
It is a man's own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.
