Swansea vs Ulster

[Snipe Watson]

Deccie is a solid scrummaging prop. He has hopefully learned from his last couple of outings. I am reliably informed by one who knows more than me, that Deccie was played by the Scarlets who conned the referee. I personally think that the lad hasn't got an ounce of sense and that's his biggest problem. He seems to have a predisposition towards the really stupid.

[rumncoke]

It's easy to be made look stupid if the ref is clueless and only watches one prop .
The Scarlets prop was smaller went lower and turn down into his hookers feet or instead of pushing up tucked the chin and nose dived .


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[bazzaj]

Really cant see us winning this despite the want of trying.
Too much disparity in the back rows in particular when you match up the sides.
Tipuric v Joyce good grief!
Their half backs are quality as well so we may be in for a long night and would be happy to settle for an lbp at this stage.

[pwrmoore]

It's easy to be made look stupid if the ref is clueless and only watches one prop .
The Scarlets prop was smaller went lower and turn down into his hookers feet or instead of pushing up tucked the chin and nose dived .


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This always annoys me. There are apparently hundreds of experts - ex-players, video analysts and (of course) arm-chair pundits - who watch games and are fit to say one prop or other was conning the ref or that the ref had "no idea what was going on in the front row". And yet the referee, whose effing job it is to watch and decide what is happening and award penalties, rarely seems to get it right.

I realise that there are many other things a ref has to watch simultaneously but you would think that referee training would include some input from ex-players and video analysts, and that maybe when a ref realises that a particular player is apparently repeat offending despite having been warned he might look a little deeper to see if there was a reason why the stupid prop in front of him was ignoring his warning. And maybe he would occasionally actually look to see where both props directly in front of him were binding, and even ask his assistant ref to glance at least once at the bindings on the opposite side.

But apparently not.

[Snipe Watson]

It's easy to be made look stupid if the ref is clueless and only watches one prop .
The Scarlets prop was smaller went lower and turn down into his hookers feet or instead of pushing up tucked the chin and nose dived .


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This always annoys me. There are apparently hundreds of experts - ex-players, video analysts and (of course) arm-chair pundits - who watch games and are fit to say one prop or other was conning the ref or that the ref had "no idea what was going on in the front row". And yet the referee, whose effing job it is to watch and decide what is happening and award penalties, rarely seems to get it right.

I realise that there are many other things a ref has to watch simultaneously but you would think that referee training would include some input from ex-players and video analysts, and that maybe when a ref realises that a particular player is apparently repeat offending despite having been warned he might look a little deeper to see if there was a reason why the stupid prop in front of him was ignoring his warning. And maybe he would occasionally actually look to see where both props directly in front of him were binding, and even ask his assistant ref to glance at least once at the bindings on the opposite side.

But apparently not.

Am I alone in being dubious about the mythical "dark arts" of the front row?
Don't get me wrong, propping is a highly specialised position, but is it really as shrouded in mystery as the fat lads would want us to believe?
Surely it's more about basic physics than alchemy. Get your shoulders level with your hips and you are stable. Get lower than your opponent and you have a more dynamic position. Push straight and keep your ass behind your shoulders. What's difficult?

[for dog and ulcer]

The main dark arts appear to be centred round eating pies. I totally understand the evident frustration in Powermower's post too. Much too much nonsense surrounding what the fatties do.

[pwrmoore]

It's easy to be made look stupid if the ref is clueless and only watches one prop .
The Scarlets prop was smaller went lower and turn down into his hookers feet or instead of pushing up tucked the chin and nose dived .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This always annoys me. There are apparently hundreds of experts - ex-players, video analysts and (of course) arm-chair pundits - who watch games and are fit to say one prop or other was conning the ref or that the ref had "no idea what was going on in the front row". And yet the referee, whose effing job it is to watch and decide what is happening and award penalties, rarely seems to get it right.

I realise that there are many other things a ref has to watch simultaneously but you would think that referee training would include some input from ex-players and video analysts, and that maybe when a ref realises that a particular player is apparently repeat offending despite having been warned he might look a little deeper to see if there was a reason why the stupid prop in front of him was ignoring his warning. And maybe he would occasionally actually look to see where both props directly in front of him were binding, and even ask his assistant ref to glance at least once at the bindings on the opposite side.

But apparently not.

Am I alone in being dubious about the mythical "dark arts" of the front row?
Don't get me wrong, propping is a highly specialised position, but is it really as shrouded in mystery as the fat lads would want us to believe?
Surely it's more about basic physics than alchemy. Get your shoulders level with your hips and you are stable. Get lower than your opponent and you have a more dynamic position. Push straight and keep your ass behind your shoulders. What's difficult?

Certainly not alone Snipe. I accept there are probably a few subtleties but the idea that no-one can know what is going on except the props themselves is ludicrous.

[thelowerthebetter]

In other news, I still believe Ulster to win tomorrow by five points

[Setanta]

Go back to the original scrum laws - nah, too easy! Formula One made changes, realised their mistakes and changed them back; Rugby - nah, too easy!

[ADM]

Match Preview here!

[Russ]

Swansea are tom kite

[CIMANFOREVER]

Deccie was binding on body but the bind moved up to the arm every time. It was as plain as day. He should have been subbed off before the card.

Agreed, and that's the managment's fault. Props have bad days, and sometimes their opposition prop has their number. Ross, who we'd no way say was in the same league of competence, held his end up with no problems after coming on.

[rumncoke]

Basically the only way to move the oppositions scrum is to disrupt their front and virtually everything you do to disrupt their front row is illegal and /or dangerous when both front rows are at it the job of a ref is nearly impossible in the days before red cards the front rows would decide what was and was not permissible with a sharp dig and things settled down . ( that doesn't happen now . )

There are some refs who don't ref the game as such but ref players or offences instead Doyle is one of them

The pro 12 had several refs who Reffed players Cardwell for one became a target -Neil Best was another when he had the blond hair a big mistake for a player playing in the back row living on the edge of the laws


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[CIMANFOREVER]

Re the above, an element of truth regarding dark arts these days. Less places to hide than of old- no hit and "soft" bind. It's now slow motion, and ref and TJ's have longer to make up their minds. I'm not sure the ref got that many wrong tbh. Even if 50/50, DF had burned his bridges and made no effort to change bind or body position.

Like I said, sometimes, your opposition prop has just got your number. Deccie was Dumb, and should've had that guy for breakfast- yet he just persisted with the same old bind- walked right into it. What was Rory doing too, as Captain and hooker? Management even dumber by not subbing him when it was obvious he'd lost the ref, and the YC was coming. Where was Clarke fs? IS THAT NOT WHAT HE'S PAID FOR?

Bronson's a bit of a dark horse, and seems to have overtaken Lutton. He was written off too quickly on the basis of too few appearances under Cowboy, and a serious long term neck injury. He's not HEC standard, but at least seems capable of holding the fort.

[rumncoke]

Russ has spoke it must be true , but Welsh teams at home feed on the pressure the crowd put on the ref .

The crowd make Kingspan seem like a teddy bears party


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