MUNSTER COACH ANTHONY Foley has joined his Leinster counterpart Matt O’Connor in questioning the refereeing of the clash between the two provinces in Dublin on Saturday evening.
O’Connor was critical of Welsh match official Ian Davies’ decision-making around the breakdown and scrum, feeling that Munster’s four second-half yellow cards came after the real damage had been done.
Damien Varley, BJ Botha, Dave Foley and Conor Murray were all sin-binned as Leinster mounted a late comeback that ultimately came up short.
Asked for his view of the refereeing of the encounter, Foley explained that he disagreed with the decisions surrounding Varley and Botha’s exits.
“I thought what Eoin Reddan did was petulant in terms of throwing the ball off Damien Varley. He had the opportunity to pass it to a Leinster player. Other referees would have viewed that the same, it’s something that shouldn’t be in the game of rugby.
We’ve got to make sure that we don’t get this crossover with soccer, fellas diving and milking penalties. I think it’s a physical game and a game that needs to be managed.
“You look at that yellow card, it’s not a yellow card. I don’t think it would have been a try. If it was a try-scoring thing, I would have agreed with a yellow card, but it was out of the 22.
“BJ’s thing is a point of law. If there’s no ruck formed, which there wasn’t, he’s entitled to play the ball from that direction within the laws of the game. I know it looks horrible, it looks wrong, but it’s actually a rule in the game of rugby. BJ was entitled to do that.
“BJ knows the rules, he’s a World Cup winner, he knows what he’s entitled to do there. There was no ruck called, so he’s entitled to immediately play the ball there.”
Foley said he had “no problem” with second row Dave Foley’s yellow for dragging down a Leinster maul that was destined for the tryline, an action which also resulted in a penalty try against Munster.
However, the Foley did feel that Davies had been inconsistent in his refereeing of that area of the game.
Mike McCarthy did it at the start of the half, no sanction,” said Foley. “Felix Jones is breaking under the posts a yard from the line, Gordon D’Arcy crawls up and slows down our ball, no sanction.”
Foley correctly pointed out that Murray had been binned through “mistaken identity,” with the scrum-half having been around 15 metres away from play when Davies awarded Leinster a penalty; fullback Jones having been the man to block Isaac Boss’ quick-tap.
Amidst his protestations, Foley questioned why Davies’ refereeing of the game had, as the Munster coach perceived it, altered so dramatically after the half-time break.
“I think it’s harsh going at him, but I’d just love to know where the pressure was applied to him between half time and during the second half. Was that something he was feeling? Was that the crowd getting on his back? Was that Leinster getting on his back?
“I’m not sure, I haven’t got an answer for it. Something definitely escalated, so I’d just like to find out what that was.”
Indeed, Foley underlined his belief that Munster are not being refereed consistently at the moment, before stating his hope that match officials will get more “protection” moving forward.
[There's] a lot of frustration going on at the moment, because what we’re getting penalised for, the opposition are doing and not getting sanctioned for. It’s a point of contention in our background at the moment.
“We feel there’s stuff that we’re doing that might be on borderline, but there’s stuff the opposition are doing that’s the exact same. We’re getting sanctioned and they’re not. From my point of view, we just need to deal with that through the right channels, which we’re doing.
“I wish referees were protected more,” continued Foley. “I think they need to either have assistant referees from their own country or a TMO from their own country, that they can go to and rely on.
“I’m not into battering referees because I think they are an essential part of the game. The better we can aid them with their refereeing, the better value we get out of the game of rugby.”
Foley confirmed that he will be filing a report with the IRFU’s Director of Referees, Owen Doyle, who will then be responsible for outlining Munster’s issues to Pro12 organisers.
