sour grapes coming through here dragon me thinks we had our chance to put an objection in about the choice of ref.....we didn't.....wales beat wales with our lack lustre kicking...its as plain and as simple as that......He is a top referee that was forced to make a very unpopular decision that broke welsh peoples hearts including my own but it was the correct one...
Rolland was fair for the rest of the game because he could afford to be - he'd already done his damage. I say again, if these sort of tackles are to be routinely punished with a red card, why did Rolland NOT send off Palmer for his tackle on Lydiate? Rules are rules clamour the pro Rolland lobby, so, according to those rules, Palmer should have walked yet he didn't. Strange that Wales was on the wrong end of both those decisions. In the one match the Welsh player was the victim of a tackle that went unpunished; in the second instance the Welsh player was the perpetrator and received instant and ruthless punishment. Any wonder that questions are being asked? Imo, he was being selective on both occasions and that sort of refereeing is killing rugby. As far as I'm concerned he should pack it in, get out of the game and take his grubby philosophy with him.
another bitter man here..........Instead of blaming the ref who had a good fair game blame the player who done an illegal tackle and speared the french guy to the ground that was lucky he never maimed the guy for life. The spear tackle is the most frowned upon tackle in rugby and he had no choice but to send him off....it has got absolutely nothing to do with him being Irish with a french father, He is a top referee and well respected and would never have been chosen for the elite job of reffing in the biggest tournament in rugby union.....
I guess you don't like him then,Dragon. I wonder why the Wales camp didn't complain about him when he was selected to take charge of the match. They must have been happy about him,and not worried about potential bias on his part.
of course they were not worried vetch....why would they be....they knew he is one of the best refs in the world....My own query which is a valid one in my point of view is why was a northern ref and not a southern ref in charge of the match anyway....i found that strange but not the handling of the game as he was superb all through the game...
Come of it, Dai. Le Clerc was NOT speared, he was dropped (not from a great height either, Warburton was stooping) and there is a world of difference. So I ask you again, when an almost identical tackle was made on Lydiate in an earlier game, why didn't this "top and well respected" referee (your description, not mine) flourish his red card then? We'll have to agree to differ on this one but when the likes of Guscott, Brian Moore, Dalaglio, Sean Fitzpatrick and Pienaar all slated the decision, I feel that I'm on safe ground. After all, they are hardly embittered Welshmen are they?
its just like football the ref sees what he sees and i have played that tackle over and over again and it do look like a spear tackle, even while in the act he realises what he was doing and drops him his momentum showed his body to follow through with the tackle, He is not a dirty player it was just bad judgement. there have been no complaints from the player just disappointment with his own actions. the ref had to make a decision as he saw it and he saw it as a sending off and i agree with him....
i would have thought a european ref would have done the southern game and a southern ref would have done the european game
Guys, i have watched your comments from afar over the last week with interest. I think there has been a lot of fair questions asked and points made, but i cant understand why more of the Welsh fans are not critical of Warburton. I Know he is your captain and he had a fantastic world cup, but what he did was dangerous and yes, naive. He cost you that match and not the ref. When it comes to sport, fans are often too quick to blame the ref and officials and very slow to blame their idols. I posted before the match that Roland was a pretty decent ref and in my eyes he remains so. Not because he is Irish, but because he is not afraid to make the hard calls. Do you think that he would have wanted to send a player off in the semi-final of the World Cup? He would have known that that decision would probably ruin his career forever. He would have known that that decision would bring a huge amount of criticism from the media / fans etc etc. But he made the decision, and it was the right one. I have looked at the tackle over and over again and it was dangerous. Again, if Warburton was a little more experienced he would have known better. He committed that tackle, he got sent off and he let his nation down. I dont want to sound too critical, but i think its time that some people looked a little closer to home when they are looking for somebody to blame. Lay off Roland, he is also a big loser here, his career is destroyed for making a correct call.
can't imagine there would have been too many complaints had a frenchman been sent off for the same thing.. what would have been said had a frog been let off for a spear tackle on a welshman
this game starts soon.. i hope wales smash the occers all the way home.. will soon see if they would have been worthy finallists
good game that puts wales in perspective that we are still behind the southern hemisphere sides but are catching them up. we did not beat any big side in the tournament unless you can call the Irish a big side....which i don't......the players had a go and you can see the improvement in the side but when it matters they are still not good enough. Now for the 6 nations where we should do ok but i would not put a lot of money on it.....we are not there yet...so close but yet so far....
Had Adam Jones and Priestland been fit then IMO the outcome would've been different. People will talk about Warburton not being there but I thought Ryan Jones did a good job at the breakdown in his absence. Our scrum got demolished on Paul James' side, as usual and James Hook and Stephen Jones didn't bring the centres into the game like Priestland had been doing in our previous games. What we really need is a consistent goal kicker (Priestland if he improves even more??) because everyone else (Hook, Jones, Halfpenny) is so inconsistent infront of the posts, and penalties decide big games against the big nations. We've lost 3 games this world cup by a combined points total of 5, when we should've won all 3 of them with our missed penalties and conversions, maybe we'll start closing games out when the players get more experience. Disagree with you on the 6 nations thing aswell, I reckon we'll do the Grand Slam. I can't see any of the teams stopping us.
Totally disagree. With the exception of the All Blacks we have played the best rugby in the whole tournament. I have had enough of hearing that penalties and conversions were deemed as extras. We have missed 10 kicks TEN! in two games. Landing TWO would have got us a medal of some sort. It is an indictment of the game if this counts. I sincerely hope that this is the last we see of Messrs Hook and Jones. Hook by name and Hook by nature!
Pleased to congratulate Oz. Well played them and at least we lost to a proper rugby team. Hook's missed sitter cost us YET ANOTHER GAME (no apologies for shouting. I've been shouting at these easy kicks we've been missing for years!!) I suppose there is a sort of moral justice in it, however, because Hook's pass for our first try was blatantly forward. By the way, we've been talking about dangerous play a lot, but what about the way Shane was taken out on the touchline by those TWO Oz tacklers? They took him out and sent him flying in the air with no regard as to how he was going to land. Genuine attempt to charge down the ball, I hear you say? Don't make me laugh! They took the chance to flatten him in the guise of a charge-down and got away with it. Shane was in far more danger from that than Le Clerc ever was from his tackle. All done and dusted now, though. I'll say well done to Oz again and thank our lads for a great World Cup. Can't wait to play Oz again shortly and, boy, am I looking forward to the 6 Nations!!
Think todays game goes to prove that Northern Hemisphere refs should stay with what they know - European games. It's not sour grapes, as the best team won. But where in Europe do you 'Firstly' see tackles made feet first (watch the Williams 'forward pass' try, and the desperate last minute try saving tackle that missed). 'Secondly', where were the arms in the other tackle on Williams - bloke was lucky to get up after that lot. There were so many Australian tackles without 'arms' that this has to be called as bad as 'spear' tackles. The reason for so much blood is purely leading with the head, when are the European (Northern Hemisphere) ref's going to become aware that these 'Southern' teams play a different game. Well done Oz, you were much better, especially when Quade 'tripped over a blade of grass'. Deserved winners, we'll get you later in the year. Only unfortunate thing is, we are likely to have an Irish/French/English ref - so we may as well start 10 points down or with 14 men.
