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Andrea Piardi

Pop quiz. For those of you with a female partner, ask her this: "if you were an international rugby player, would you rather the best available referee or the best available female referee?" Feel free to alternate with sport of choice
 
Pop quiz. For those of you with a female partner, ask her this: "if you were an international rugby player, would you rather the best available referee or the best available female referee?" Feel free to alternate with sport of choice
TBPH, it would depend on nicely she looks. The referee, not my partner.
 
Pop quiz. For those of you with a female partner, ask her this: "if you were an international rugby player, would you rather the best available referee or the best available female referee?" Feel free to alternate with sport of choice

It's the perennial question of balancing an immediate personal benefit (the best referee available on the day) against a wider, community-oriented benefit (the development of female referees).

Especially interesting in a team sport, with its inherent balance of collective vs individual benefit.

That's politics, innit?
 
Pop quiz. For those of you with a female partner, ask her this: "if you were an international rugby player, would you rather the best available referee or the best available female referee?" Feel free to alternate with sport of choice
This is not really the question. On any given day only one game can have the "best" referee. Also that referee must move around the various teams over a season. We know that new referees MUST be given game time. However, this has to be done with thought on the part of the appointment people.

A referee works his way up by showing that he is competent and confortable at a level. They then start to show the POTENTIAL to move up. At some point that potential has to be tested. Do you give them the the Top of the table chapionship decider or do you given them relatively "quiet" game? "Quiet" for the level but still more testing than the games previously encountered.

Your original post is "tested" by asking was the appointment a logical one for a referee of Andrea Piardi's potential and development plan? Others can answer that better than I.

 
Well he does have his own thread, (and I didn't start it) so it seems like the right place to drop this link in.


Munster team management need to take some blame here too - they are also professionals and could have highlighted the error to off-field officials (maybe they did).
 
Well he does have his own thread, (and I didn't start it) so it seems like the right place to drop this link in.


Munster team management need to take some blame here too - they are also professionals and could have highlighted the error to off-field officials (maybe they did).

Agreed that there was a mess (but I don't think there's ever a right place to drop a link to an 'article' that is nothing more than a trawl of Twitter bleating).

At top level - is it the responsibility of the referee or the fourth official to track who is off and why, in terms of front row availability? Genuinely curious.
 
Agreed that there was a mess (but I don't think there's ever a right place to drop a link to an 'article' that is nothing more than a trawl of Twitter bleating).
A serious error that could have had (may have had) massive implications andit is not fair to bring it up? Why on earth? If a player kicked out on the full with a 5 mn overlp that would be considered "fair game" why not this? The whole point of a scrum such as this is surely that we learn .And that will sometimes be by pointing out a serious error such as this. In a few weeks I and problable a few others here will ber faced with similar situations in varous cup finals etc. If we avoid the same error thanks to referenceing a bit of "Twitter bleating" then it's a job well done.

As long as it is done in a respectfull way!
 
So you want players questioning the referee's calls? Or is that, only when the referee is wrong?
That's nothing close to what I said.

However I have no issue whatsoever with players questioning my calls, especially when I'm wrong, provided it's done appropriately.
 
I would think players should understand laws and regulations.
Would that would stop a lot of people taking up the game?:)
You have to have a general understanding of some the laws before getting on the play area whatever the sport. The real question is to what level you require the knowledge to participate. At the professional level the expectations are higher for everyone.
In general my position is - If the players don’t understand the laws then the coaches haven’t done their job.
If a referee doesn’t understand/know the laws then the fault lies with their trainers. It is my role as a PR to review a referee’s performance. In doing so it usually highlights aspects of their performance that requires further development/training. A referee’s poor performance may be due to being put on the pitch without the appropriate training.
Was Piardi’s error the result of insufficient training rather than ‘being out of his depth’? I should imagine that every professional referee is presently undertaking a compulsory refresher/training course.:)
 
Agreed that there was a mess (but I don't think there's ever a right place to drop a link to an 'article' that is nothing more than a trawl of Twitter bleating).

At top level - is it the responsibility of the referee or the fourth official to track who is off and why, in terms of front row availability? Genuinely curious.

At URC level the 4th official will usually (but not always) be an amateur ref who is on the national panel. Its their job to control the sideline and manage substitutions . They should know the relevant laws, but they are volunteers not paid professionals.

The buck stops with the ref though, he's the one in charge . He was aware (because he said it and was standing beside the player who was kod) that the first prop going off was a HIA, so his antenna should have been going off when the 2nd prop went off.

Its all done via an app on the sideline now, so perhaps someone inputted something incorrectly which led to the request to drop to 14. Perhaps and I'm not privy to anything Munster didnt input the first prop as a HIA or the 2nd one as injury which would lead to the whole mix up. So maybe its not all on the officials.

4th official is a shitty job, so many regulations with coaches always trying on stuff and shouting at you about refs decisions. No one will ever tell you you did a great job as 4th, all you can do is fuck it up and then its a shit show.

Ref gets paid, ARs get paid , TMO gets paid. 4th and 5th are lucky to get a cup of tea.
 
I have a lot of sympathy with the idea that pro players should understand the rules and laws of the game.

But there a large difference between 1-23 all understanding the offside laws around the ruck, and the esoteric mix of man-off/no-man-off requirements especially if these change between competitions.
 
meanwhile, a personal thought....

"diversity hire" is starting - to me - to just become the latest in a stream of meaningless slights CF "woke", "leftie", "millenial", "tofu-eating wokerati'" which - again to me - merely really simply means "I don't like this thing so Ill make a negative implication"


Others MMV.
 
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meanwhile, a personal thought....

"diversity hire" is starting - to me - to just become the latest in a stream of meaningless slights CF "woke", "leftie", "millenial", "tofu-eating wokerati'" which - again to me - merely really simply means "I don't like this thing so Ill make a negative implication"


Others MMV.
No, it's not a slight; it is real & it has become an unfortunate norm in modern western society. Its where appointment decisions are unashamedly based on criteria other than merit.

"Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times."
I like this quote. I wonder where we are on the cycle
 
as I said - others' mileage may vary.

still smacks of "I don't like it - so Ill berate it with a meaningless name"
 
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