United Rugby Championship

[hugonaut]

I was thinking about DC's comment on Ireland's excellent discipline, and it prompted me to look up the discipline records for the URC.

I've felt for a good few years that we get a raw deal from referees in that tournament – it's like they feel that they are evening the odds against us. I'm always going to see this from a Leinster viewpoint, and don't expect much sympathy from fans of other teams, but I don't think I'm wrong.

We're 15 from 15, we're running away with the thing in terms of tries scored, points scored etc. We play a great style of rugby, have very few foul play calls against us and yet we are one of the most penalised teams in the league.

1. Zebre Parma: 195 [9 YC/2 RC]
2. Sharks: 177 [4 YC/ 1 RC]
3. Bulls: 173 [11 YC/1 RC]
4. Glasgow: 168 [5 YC/ 0 RC]
5. Leinster: 166 [5 YC / 1 RC*]
6. Cardiff: 166 [9 YC/ 0 RC]
7. Dragons: 165 [12 YC/1 RC]
8. Benetton Treviso: 164 [9 YC/ 3 RC]

9. Edinburgh: 162 [8 YC/ 0RC]
10. Scarlets: 161 [14 YC/ 4 RC]
11. Munster: 160 [7 YC/ 0 RC]
12. Connacht: 159 [8 YC/1 RC]
13. Stormers: 146 [7 YC/ 1 RC]
14. Ulster: 144 [7 YC/0 RC]
15. Lions: 137 [9 YC/ 1 RC]
16. Ospreys: 134 [9 YC/ 0 RC]

* red card for Cian Healy was later rescinded.

In contrast, in the European Cup [which has a much smaller sample size of 4no. games] we are the joint least penalised team in the tournament to date [source: https://www.epcrugby.com/champions-cup/statistics/ ].

[ronk]

Agree. There's a lot of compression in the middle of that table so a few penalties less would see us shoot down.

In my head we're about the same as Ulster,which would be over a penalty a game.

Part of it is the way we play. We launch off scrums rather than milk penalties and the same at the breakdown. We roll away fast and if we get called for not rolling away there's usually someone trapping us in.

[D4surfer]

Penalties conceded can be a little misleading. We get a lot of "penalty advantage" when attacking. Sometimes 2 or 3 in the same phase. We generally score so those advantages don't count towards the opposition teams penalty count. Conversely, when we defend, if we concede a "penalty advantage", we quite often hold out and prevent a score. The penalty is then included in our penalty count.

With my blue tinted spectacles we actually concede less "penalty advantages" than most other teams.

[neill_m]

FRIDAY, MARCH 24

Zebre Parma v Cardiff Rugby
Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma – KO 19.10 IRE & UK / 20.10 ITA / 21.10 SA
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU, 69th league game)
AR 1: Riccardo Angelucci (FIR) AR 2: Matteo Locatelli (FIR)
TMO: Ben Blain (SRU)

Leinster v DHL Stormers
RDS Arena, Dublin – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU, 33 league game)
AR 1: Peter Martin (IRFU) AR 2: Keane Davison (IRFU)
TMO: Andrew McMenemy (SRU)

SATURDAY, MARCH 25

Benetton v Emirates Lions
Stadio Monigo, Treviso – KO 13.00 IRE & UK / 14.00 ITA / 15.00 SA
Referee: Frank Murphy (IRFU, 73rd league game)
AR 1: Filippo Russo (FIR) AR 2: Filippo Vinci (FIR)
TMO: Joy Neville (IRFU)

Ospreys v Dragons RFC
Swansea dot com Stadium, Swansea – KO 13.00 IRE & UK / 14.00 ITA / 15.00 SA
Referee: Jaco Peyper (SARU, 16th league game)
AR 1: Adam Jones (WRU) AR 2: Aaron Parry (WRU)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SARU)

Connacht v Edinburgh Rugby
The Sportsground, Galway – KO 15.00 IRE & UK / 16.00 ITA / 17.00 SA
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU, 89th league game)
AR 1: Chris Busby (IRFU) AR 2: Paul Haycock (IRFU)
TMO: Sean Brickell (WRU)

Scarlets v Cell C Sharks
Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli – KO 17.00 IRE & UK / 18.00 ITA / 19.00 SA
Referee: Eoghan Cross (IRFU, 9th league game)
AR 1: Ian Davies (WRU) AR 2: Jason Griffiths (WRU)
TMO: Leo Colgan (IRFU)

Munster v Glasgow Warriors
Thomond Park, Limerick – KO 17.15 IRE & UK / 18.15 ITA / 19.15 SA
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR, 33rd league game)
AR 1: Jonny Erskine (IRFU) AR 2: Sam Holt (IRFU)
TMO: Matteo Liperini (FIR)

Ulster v Vodacom Bulls
Kingspan Stadium, Belfast – KO 19.35 IRE & UK / 20.35 ITA / 21.35 SA
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU, 43rd league game)
AR 1: Andrew Cole (IRFU) AR 2: Kieran Barry (IRFU)
TMO: Jon Mason (WRU)

[blockhead]

Cardiffs narrow away win at Zebre pretty much secures them the Welsh Shield and a spot in the Heino next season. An Irish or South African team may well find the rug pulled from underneath them over the last 2 games.

[neill_m]

Cardiffs narrow away win at Zebre pretty much secures them the Welsh Shield and a spot in the Heino next season. An Irish or South African team may well find the rug pulled from underneath them over the last 2 games.

Bonus point win for Ospreys v Dragons. 4 points behind Cardiff and they play each other in Judgement Day in Round 18. Cardiff do have the tiebreaker re games won.

Top 8 race getting interesting

8 Benetton 16 40
9 Connacht 15 39
10 Cardiff 16 39
11 Lions 16 38

Good win for Lions in Treviso.

[enby]

Connacht would do your head in with their obsession with giving away really stupid soft penalties.

[Blue Man]

Cardiffs narrow away win at Zebre pretty much secures them the Welsh Shield and a spot in the Heino next season. An Irish or South African team may well find the rug pulled from underneath them over the last 2 games.

Let’s see how it plays out but it would be really cruel in Connacht or munster if they finish eighth and miss out on Champions Cup to accommodate underperforming Taffs

[Ray Donovan]

Ya, but it would be hilarious if it happened to Munster.

[Mookie]

Watching Glasgow v Scarlets on TG4. I wish someone would let the commentator know that Zander and Matt's surname is Fagerson and not Ferguson as he keeps saying. Really annoying!

[desperado]

Entertaining game at the Kingspan, the highlight for me (with my Ireland hat on) being the increasing return to form of Stockdale. Downside TOT injury. Ulster still prone to falling asleep at times. Dragons could have closed to within 5 points when Ulster should have been out of sight.

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[Blue Man]

Entertaining game at the Kingspan, the highlight for me (with my Ireland hat on) being the increasing return to form of Stockdale. Downside TOT injury. Ulster still prone to falling asleep at times. Dragons could have closed to within 5 points when Ulster should have been out of sight.

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The most encouraging part of Stockdale’s performance was that he went looking for the ball; James Lowe style, he didn’t wait for the game to come to him, he imposed himself upon the game

[Ruckedtobits]

Really poor and very controversial decision by Chris Busby and TMO McNeice in Glasgow today. Fifita, (Scarlets 2nd row) picking up the ball out of a ruck / breakdown with Busby shouting "it's out, play on" and outstripped the Warriors flanker to score with five minutes to go to put Scarlets ahead by 12-14, only for TMO to bring him back to a minute examination of "slo-mo" rocking back and forward to determine whether Fifita was onside when he started to move for the ball. In fact the ball was out of the ruck when he first moved but the momentum of the Scarlets forwards pushed the Glasgow lads back and the ball was not behind the hindmost foot at all times. But, the ball had been out and you can't bring a ball back into a ruck. In law, IMO, Fifita was onside and entitled to advance to pick up the ball.

The final score was 12-9 for Glasgow, but only due to the ineptitude and interference of the Officials, egged by a vocal Glasgow fan-base.

[wixfjord]

An absolutely massive win for the Bulls over Zebre puts them level on points, level on matches won with Munster and only 1 point behind now on PD.

[Schumi]

Weird one in that match where Zebre had used all their subs by 55 minutes and then couldn't replace an injured player. Not sure why they'd made 8 subs so early.

[wixfjord]

Looking probably we'll face Connacht in QF.

[naraic]

Looking probably we'll face Connacht in QF.

I dunno. Connacht can definitely beat Cardiff tonight and I'm expecting Glasgow to send a definite second string team out against Connacht.

Glasgow (like ourselves) have at least 2 knockout games in a row with a potential 5 knockout games on the bounce.

[the spoofer]

Law question. Can you claim a mark from a penalty at goal? Didn’t think you could.

[Serb]

Law question. Can you claim a mark from a penalty at goal? Didn’t think you could.

Law 22.2 states:
“A player may claim a mark even if the ball hits a goal post or crossbar before being caught”.

I think as long as the ball doesn’t touch the ground, it’s legal to call a mark from a penalty that hits the post.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Law question. Can you claim a mark from a penalty at goal? Didn’t think you could.

So, here’s my take. If the ball rebounds from the post it’s in open play. An attacker can claim the ball and score a try, a defender can claim the ball and play it out so why should there be no option of a mark being called?