IRB ref appointments

[mikerob]

Blind Dave and Wayne Barnes demoted to ref tier 2 games.

IRB elite panel is: George Clancy (Ireland), Jérôme Garcès (France), Craig Joubert (South Africa), Nigel Owens (Wales), Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Romain Poite (France), Alain Rolland (Ireland) and Steve Walsh (Australia).

Also Paddy O'Brien no longer in charge of IRB refs and he moves on to 7s...

http://www.irb.com/newsmedia/mediazone/ ... estructure

[pythagoras]

Looks like politics did not come into it. Otherwise England would have at least 1 ref.
Clancy?!
No Scots refs (naturally) which is a lame link to my question
Can anyone remember the Scottish referee who penalised Connacht a few years ago for a slight delay at a 22 drop-out and cost them a very rare victory. Might have been patterson except I seem to remember he had hair. The game was in Wales.

[Shan]

Clancy's Ma must work for the IRB.

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list which is pretty sad really vis-a-vis the standard of referees in rugby currently.

[AndyB]

Personally I think Clancy is a terrible ref but he refs strictly according to what the IRB want. I think he has no feel at all for the game.

[Big Smoke Culchie]

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list

I challenge you to tell me which one is worse (with a straight face).

[Snipe Watson]

Clancy's Ma must work for the IRB.

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list which is pretty sad really vis-a-vis the standard of referees in rugby currently.

Baggy, does Clancy's ma work for the IRB?

[gannonman]

Never heard of Peyper. Clancy is pretty bad. Owens is the best closely followed by Joubert.

[Samstew]

Clancy's Ma must work for the IRB.

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list which is pretty sad really vis-a-vis the standard of referees in rugby currently.

I was watching the Hong Kong Sevens, live on Sky this morning and one of the games was Samoa v Argentina with Clancy refereeing!
He made a diabolical decision in blowing up for a penalty to Argentina at the very same moment an Argentinian scored.
So what does Mr Clancy do?
A) Brings play back for the penalty
B) Asks the TMO if his whistle blew before/after the ball was grounded - as Nigel Owens did in the Six Nations

No, he awards the try even though technically, as he had blown for the penalty, the ball was dead.
The stupid thing about the whole incident was, he did not need to blow for the penalty so quickly as there was plenty of scope for the advantage.
In any other game, this could have been highly contentious.

[Shan]

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list

I challenge you to tell me which one is worse (with a straight face).

I'll accept that challenge and say Steve Walsh. Dreadful ref and like Clancy he is a total kn-bhead.

[Samstew]

Mind you he isn't the worst ref out of that "elite" list

I challenge you to tell me which one is worse (with a straight face).

I'll accept that challenge and say Steve Walsh. Dreadful ref and like Clancy he is a total kn-bhead.

And Shan gets it right yet again

[cables]

Pretend YOU are a referee selector. You are convinced that some (most?) elite refs are not performing to an acceptable standard.

What do you do?

1. Drop and promote.
2. Drop and promote only where the performance could be expected to be higher.
3. Try to improve all.
4. Reduce the number of Tier 1 games to match a reasonable workload for the referees performing to an acceptable level.

[Craigers]

Steve Walsh is a such a bad ref he is very entertaining. I was watching Blues v Hurricanes in the Super XV on Friday. On at least 3 occasions he had to consult the assistants as he had missed something. I think on one occasion, there was a knock-on, and the players on both sides stopped and he still had to ask what was happening. I check which match he us in charge of every week as something always happens.

[pythagoras]

If Steve walsh was a soccer ref he'd be this guy

[Yoda]

walsh likes the sound of his own voice but would far far rather have him reffing than clancy

[MightyRearranger]

While I'm not trying to claim he's anything other than a terrible ref I have to confess to finding the comments he makes about the game quite amusing. I used to be quite fond of Tony Spredbury for the same reason. Both have quite a bit of charachter to them.