WELSHMAN NIGEL OWENS has been appointed to referee Leinster’s Heineken Cup Pool 1 clash with the Northampton Saints on the 7th of December.
The world class official most recently took charge of Ireland’s defeat to the All Blacks on Sunday, provoking more of the praise he has attracted this season for his excellent form. Owens’ appointment means we are likely to see a flowing game in Franklin’s Gardens.
Elsewhere, Munster’s clash with Perpignan in Round 3 of the Heineken Cup pool stages will see Greg Garner of the RFU take charge at Thomond Park. Ulster’s encounter with Treviso in Ravenhill will be refereed by Luke Pearce of the RFU, while Connacht’s trip to Toulouse sees Marius Mitrea of the Italian federation on the whistle.
A week later, Leinster welcome the Saints to Dublin and Frenchman Jerome Garces is penciled in as the leading match official. The FFR man is known to be fussy and demanding on occasion, so O’Connor’s side will need to be extremely disciplined.
Munster’s return game against Top 14 side Perpignan will be adjudicated by JP Doyle, the Dublin native who works out of England. Connacht will host Toulouse in Galway under the rule of Leighton Hodges of the WRU, while Ulster travel to Italy to take on Treviso with Greg Garner of the RFU taking control.
Did he get praise for match on Sunday ? What about the all black offsides he let go, no yellow card for a tackle it in the air and allowing richie Mcgraw to tell him where he would like penalties to be taken ?
Still the best ref in the game currently.
Overlooking Toner knocking on: accidental offside and trying to find a way to disallow the final AB try !!!
Will obviously has a soft spot for Nige considering his history with Munster in 2008 but still won’t let him away with his shocker in the Croke Park Semi 2009 ;-) …. but have always found him to be the best referee in today’s game with very clear communication with teams, consistent in his decisions throughout a game (none of this “ahh I’l make a game of it and bring the other team back into it” decisions) and no ‘Steve Walsh’ levels of arrogance.
Poor connacht have L. Hodges , he must be the fussiest , arrogant, rude and downright useles ref around. Controversy follows him everywhere. How the frk is he doing heineken
If only for his “this is not soccer speech” he will always be welcome in Wexford
Happy enough from a Munster pov.
At least we didn’t get Roman f’ing Poite
True that.
How in the name of feck is a Dublin man able to ref a Munster game. Seems unfair.
Yeah it’s fairly harsh on Munster alright…
Cause he is not associated with the irfu even though he is Irish he is seen as neutral as he is an rfu referee
At least you have a excuse, the Leinster ref did it.