Refereeing main talking from Munster win over Connacht

 1,931 total views,  3 views today

Munster got their third win of their URC season by defeating Connacht on a score line of 24-17 in Thomond Park on Saturday night. Conditions were not easy, and it led to a very scrappy and sloppy game with plenty of niggle between both teams.

Connacht started the better of the teams and after some good early pressure they were awarded a penalty and Carty duly slotted between the posts for a 3-0 start.

What happened after is what will really frustrate Connacht fans and has happened a lot over the past few seasons for Connacht. On the restart after scoring, Caolin Blade catches the kick and gets blocked down on the attempted clearance, the ball spills to Bundee who gets caught off guard and knocks the ball on.

These types of errors happen way to often in regard to restarts and it absolutely kills the team.

I can remember several games where after the team does all the hard work of scoring, they go and shoot themselves in the foot on the restart and give away the points they just scored.

Munster’s second score, a penalty kick, comes straight off the back of more silly errors. Connacht actually put in some big defensive shifts towards the end of the first half. Especially right at the death of the first half, they won a huge psychological battle by keeping Munster out. However, a few minutes before that, they do brilliantly to turn the ball over and the ball gets picked up by Alex Wootton who offloads to open space and the ball is regathered by Munster. Again, just undoing all the hard work achieved by the defence. I am all for taking risks but calculated risks. Not risks that give the ball back to the opposition in your 22.

Connacht’s attack on Saturday night left a lot to desire.

They scored two tries but only one of them actually came from an attacking platform. The other try was from brilliant pressure and a Munster mistake. I don’t know what the game plan was. It looked like they went there trying not to lose rather than going there to win. They kicked the ball away a lot. I know that it was a very windy night there is a certain tactical advantage to kicking the ball away, but I don’t really feel like Connacht really fired a shot. Connacht missed having Hawkshaw on the pitch. Having that second playmaker/kicker on the pitch I think provides us more attacking options. Connacht rarely has phases in Munster’s 22 and when they did enter it usually ended in a turnover or an error. Connacht remain the lowest scoring team in the league, so something needs to change.

If anyone follows my Podcast or follows my social media pages, they will know I am not one for blaming referees. I think it is a pointless act and will never achieve anything. Also, there is nothing worse than someone going on a rant about a referee, it looks awful. Rassie for example, an amazing world cup winning coach, now laughed at and disliked by so many.

Regarding Saturday nights refereeing display, it was not his best and I feel he definitely missed some big calls for both teams.

I know he is still very new in his career, and it was a very tough game to ref with a lot of unnecessary misdemeanours from both teams. Maybe someone more experienced should be appointed to ref InterPro’s, but the ref will gain tons of experience from that, and I am sure will become a better ref from it.  

Connacht did battle back well after going fourteen down to at least secure a losing bonus point. A losing bonus point was the very least Connacht should have accepted and in seasons before where I believe Connacht would have folded and conceded a few more tries, they dug in deep and if not for an unlucky knock on by Jack Carty with a few minutes to go, you never know what could have happened.

Connacht are now 13^th in the URC table. Munster with a bonus point win last night, jumped straight into 8^th place.

That’s how close it is in the league right now. This puts a lot of pressure on next week’s fixture with Benetton. Benetton currently sit 6^th in the table and have had some great results this year. With Connacht’s schedule being incredibly tough over the Christmas period, a loss next weekend will be a huge dent into their top eight hopes. A win next weekend could propel Connacht in or around that eight spot and then they can worry about taking some calps over Christmas. If they are to do that however, they will need to unlock this attack and get some points on the board.