He almost always looks like that, though!I don't dislike McClaren but even at 5-2 up he still looks very downbeat. Guess it shows what pressure these guys are under.

Nice to see Rondon doing the right thing by our loanee yesterday:
You must log in or register to see mediaCould've been a painful landing, if he hadn't intervened.
I see Howard Webb has found a new career, blatantly cheating Scotland out of a win by awarding Australia a last second penalty for a foul committed by an Australian player in yesterday's egg chucking...
One of the many, many counter-intuitive things about rugby refereeing is that referees only count the first offence when blowing the whistle. For example, yesterday saw Australia commit some piddling little infraction, and a few seconds later one of their players blatantly took out a Scottish player - but when the ref blew the whistle, he awarded Scotland a penalty for the the initial infraction because rugby rules state that the referee should only blow for the first offence...which gives teams who usually play the referee, such as Australia and France, free reign to get away with some nasty challenges that deserve at least a spell in the sin bin but because according to the rules the later fouls did not happen.Another good example how rugby's video technology isn't stopping bad decisions as effectively as advocates of bringing it into football would have you believe.
It also seems to take an age for a lot of the decisions to be made once the video ref becomes involved. I'd rather we keep the tempo in the game wherever possible and focus on better refereeing standards.
Another good example how rugby's video technology isn't stopping bad decisions as effectively as advocates of bringing it into football would have you believe.
It also seems to take an age for a lot of the decisions to be made once the video ref becomes involved. I'd rather we keep the tempo in the game wherever possible and focus on better refereeing standards.
Given the speed he was running off the pitch the second he blew the final whistle, one can only presume it was because he was getting a few of these after the match...It only didn't work because Joubert chose not to go to it! Why? Only he knows....
One of the many, many counter-intuitive things about rugby refereeing is that referees only count the first offence when blowing the whistle. For example, yesterday saw Australia commit some piddling little infraction, and a few seconds later one of their players blatantly took out a Scottish player - but when the ref blew the whistle, he awarded Scotland a penalty for the the initial infraction because rugby rules state that the referee should only blow for the first offence...which gives teams who usually play the referee, such as Australia and France, free reign to get away with some nasty challenges that deserve at least a spell in the sin bin but because according to the rules the later fouls did not happen.
It's not the first time I've seen that happen at this year's RWC either, as the exact same thing happened in the New Zealand/Argentina match in the group stage.
It only didn't work because Joubert chose not to go to it! Why? Only he knows....
Didn't know that. Surprised they can't still deal with disciplinary matters seperately when it's called for.
Well exactly. Would you trust Premier League refs not to do that too?
If we go by a cricket/tennis style limited appeals rule then we'll have managers abusing the system for tactical advantage. If we leave it to the refs we leave it exposed to the same incompetence that led to video refereeing to be called for in the first place. On top of that there's the subjective nature of some calls. With Sky, BT and other media outlets using ex-referees to explain decisions we've only ended up seeing more and more contradictions.
World rugby have said that he was not allowed to use TMO for the incident. I don't know why. So he was relying on what he saw with no help available.
In real time that was a pretty easy mistake to make.
Joubert shouldn't be blamed if that is the case.
Really?The obvious comparison would be Premier League refs with and referee of a good standard. For example, several Premier League teams (notably Man Utd and Chelsea) will maraud towards the ref en masse knowing they can get away with it - but they never dare do it in the Champions League as they know half a dozen yellow cards would soon follow.
One of the weird things about rugby refereeing is that there's different standards between the Northern and Southern hemisphere. For example, Australia's usual shenanigans at line-outs (either passing to the player right in front of them, or throwing in the ball at such an angle it is almost impossible for a non-Australian player to catch it) is usually quickly stamped out by a Northern hemisphere ref, but Southern hemisphere refs just let it go on.
The obvious comparison would be Premier League refs with and referee of a good standard. For example, several Premier League teams (notably Man Utd and Chelsea) will maraud towards the ref en masse knowing they can get away with it - but they never dare do it in the Champions League as they know half a dozen yellow cards would soon follow.