The Sofa Ref

  So Daddy feels the need to come out with "the circus surrounding Owen is disgusting"  I couldn't agree more with the term "CIRCUS". World Rugby (IRB), the RFU & Six Nations have brought this circus upon themselves. They are supposed to serve the rugby playing world, the greater UK rugby audience and all of Europe's rugby fraternity, respectively. It has taken a circus to get any type of action from the IRB.  Owen Farrell is a gifted rugby player, of that there can be no doubt. As a supporter of anyone playing England, it pains me to grudgingly admit this, but he is definitely cut from a different cloth to most. He has a nasty streak however, and he has a definite flaw in his defensive technique, which has landed him in trouble before, and, unless he fixes it, will land him in trouble again, if it doesn't cause a very serious injury to a fellow professional. The woes befalling him now are but a fraction of the times he has gotten away Scott-free. On

       So Owen Farrell, The Teflon 10, dodges yet another sanction for a dangerous, head-high assault.  Nothing sticks to this guy. It wasn't a tackle as, by the very definition, he failed to make any attempt, once again, to use his arms in the contact situation. He merely drives his shoulder into the attacking player, with considerable force, after adjusting his position, lining him up and then BANG!! What is it that Farrell has which allows him a get out of jail free card each and every time he does this? It certainly isn't his bubbly, sparkling personality. The dour Yorkshireman does not have a personality, unless posturing, flexing and snarling take your fancy..  The ruling by the disciplinary committee would be laughable if it wasn't simply blatant bullshit.  They have said the contact was mitigated by the fact that Jamie George (I think) steers the player into Farrells path. Bullshit. By the time Farrell makes contact with his shoulder to the head of Basham, George wa

Before we get into this please know that I am a huge Manchester United fan. I simply hate VAR more than I love United!! Whomever decided using technology to try and decipher subjective laws, needs to tarred and feathered and left in the village square for people to chuck fucking rocks at him. Last night's disaster from the VAR team, despite very clear evidence of a foul by Andre Onana, is proof, in week one of the Premier League's new season, that we should prepare for some very heated chats around the watercooler this season. This is about as clear a penalty for this type of infringement as you will get. I don't know whether the VAR official fell asleep because the game was almost over, or if he had a bird in the booth taking his concentration elsewhere, or if he simply missed his latest visit to SpecSavers, but he royally fucked this one up!! And it isn't unique to football/soccer!! The rugby system is an unmitigated fuckup too. The last three weeks have seen, what wo

Referee Accountability How have we gotten to this point in the game? Why are these decisions being discussed at water coolers all over the world, every week? We no longer talk about rugby, we talk about how shit the referee was. No one mentions the Pumas guts and determination or that Pieter-Steff-Du Toit made 20 tackles in the game, or how good Vermeulen was. We are talking about the ref and how ineffectual he was.  The biggest issue here is the referee. Not just  Andrew Brace, but all of them in World Rugby, and IRB needs to get a handle on it, fast. The rugby world likes to point a finger at SA about ref bashing but that is because of the leaked video Rassie Erasmus made. Referees are copping flack from all sides, and official and supporters from all countries are calling out refs over the abysmal state of officiating in the game today. My question is this. Why are referees absolved of any blame by their country's union, their own referee board and the IRB. If this is deemed a c

I have some sympathy for Johnny Bairstow and the England team but, to be honest, Bairstow was a bit naive here. I have watched the video over and over and Carey receives the ball after Bairstow ducks under the short ball and immediately throws it at the stumps. There is no delay or attempted trickery. Bairstow had no right to assume at that stage the ball was dead. It wasn't, and the umpires were quite correct to give him out. He simply went walkabout at a crucial time in a test match and that let the Aussies back into the game.  Is this in the "spirit of the game"? No, probably not, in the good old "that's not cricket" days, but the spirit of the game disappeared long ago. Was the body line series of 1932 in the spirit? Did Clive Lloyd's Windies side think about the spirit as they swept all before them with a mixture of hostility and in your face challenges? We have had under-arm bowling, Mankads and all manner of controversies over the last century of

  No one can accuse me of being a Johnny Sexton fan, but as much as Mr Misery irritates the life out of me with his constant whingeing on the field, referees, and their lack of accountability to anyone, piss me off immensely. They are answerable to nobody but their own little cabal and they are protected by every single board and organising body. They always back the official. The game has become all about them. Little celebrities in their own minds. In recent years everyone has fallen foul of criticising the match day officials. Some have been punished more than others (that’s a post for another day though) some have gotten away with nothing but a few column inches in a blog somewhere. But, to a man, all are critical of the level of officiating.  There are almost no officials worthy of a test match these days but no one is telling them how bad they are, because everyone is too scared to do it!! Sexton was wrong according to the standard, but being threatened with a 10 week ban for los