Leinster vs Bath

[Blue Voodoo]

There seems to be a suggestion that heaslip has some kind of fracture to a vertebra in his back

As a non medical person that sounds like it could be more than just a few weeks out

Anyone know what we could be looking at here ?

[ceemec]

BBC also reporting it as possible broken vertebrae. That would be a season ender, I'd have thought.

[neiliog93]

Ouch...sounds dreadful. Can't believe St.André is (maybe pretending) to buy the accident angle. A 116kg man ploughing his knee into someone's back with a decent run-up - just so dangerous. Simultaneously happy it's not worse and feeling bad for him. He played on for a bit after the event, hopefully any Southern folk deeming him soft stand corrected now!

[simonokeeffe]

Ouch...sounds dreadful. Can't believe St.André is (maybe pretending) to buy the accident angle. A 116kg man ploughing his knee into someone's back with a decent run-up - just so dangerous. Simultaneously happy it's not worse and feeling bad for him. He played on for a bit after the event, hopefully any Southern folk deeming him soft stand corrected now!

not good for him to throw his vice captain under the bus but hes hardly going to be gracious type in defeat

but yeah youd imagine regular season over for Heaslip

[ceemec]

Irish Times reporting 4 weeks out for Heaslip and apparently 3 vertebrae damaged. He should be back for the Bath game but his 6N is over.

[nc6000]

Jerome Garces is the ref.

http://www.epcrugby.com/officials/index.php

[curates_egg]

Jerome Garces is the ref.

http://www.epcrugby.com/officials/index.php

Jaysus. When you look through that list of officials, it's hard to pick a good one.
There is Owens, guys I know and think are not that good, and guys I don't know.

[simonokeeffe]

Jerome Garces is the ref.

http://www.epcrugby.com/officials/index.php

Jaysus. When you look through that list of officials, it's hard to pick a good one.
There is Owens, guys I know and think are not that good, and guys I don't know.

Dudley Philips is good but not like we can get him
We need to clone Owens

[neiliog93]

Nigel is one of the only competent refs out there. The general refereeing standard is very low. They really, really need to be more sympathetic to the attacking team in terms of penalising for holding on, and need to actually start giving penalties for the defensive line being offside - if necessary 5 or 6 times in a row with a sin binning until the offenders get it. Then we'd see the attacking team rewarded rather than punished as it is currently. If you watch Nigel you'll see that he gives the attacking team 2 or 3 times the amount of time to clear out opposition players going for the steal at the ruck, and rightly so. He's also incredibly strict on not rolling away.

Makes for a much better, attack-orientated spectacle.

[Not_Today]

Jerome Garces is the ref.

http://www.epcrugby.com/officials/index.php

Jaysus. When you look through that list of officials, it's hard to pick a good one.
There is Owens, guys I know and think are not that good, and guys I don't know.

Dudley Philips is good but not like we can get him
We need to clone Owens

Dudley is a terrible ref. Similar style to Wayne Banes but worse.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Garces is one of my favourite refs, it'll be grand. He didn't have his best game against Wasps but generally I think he's brilliant.

[Donny B.]

Garces is one of my favourite refs, it'll be grand. He didn't have his best game against Wasps but generally I think he's brilliant.

Really? I generally find him very whistle-happy.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Yeah big fan. Of that list the only ones I like are himself, Owens, and Guazere...slim pickings. Surprised Luke Pearce didn't get a big enough game, he's quality too. From down south I'd say Jaco Peyer might well be the best ref in the world, would like himself or Owens to get the World Cup final. Pollock is good too. Funny interpretation of the breakdown but I think he's improved on that a bit and at least he's consistent on it and communicates really well.

[simonokeeffe]

Dudley did alright today

Bath had a miserable 12-3 home win over Sale this weekend

[curates_egg]

Amazed (a) that Heaslip played yesterday and (b) how good he was.
Thought Toner and Reddan also looked very good. Encouraging.

On the flip side, Healy has looked poor since coming back and yesterday almost everything he did was bad. Unless something changes pretty quickly, I'd definitely start McGrath vs Bath.

The Bath backs again looked exciting but a bit green at times.

[LeinsterLeader]

Amazed (a) that Heaslip played yesterday and (b) how good he was.
Thought Toner and Reddan also looked very good. Encouraging.

On the flip side, Healy has looked poor since coming back and yesterday almost everything he did was bad. Unless something changes pretty quickly, I'd definitely start McGrath vs Bath.

The Bath backs again looked exciting but a bit green at times.

Yeah I'd agree with that (re Healy). Everyone has been saying that we (Ireland/Leinster) are missing his ball carrying and I think he has fallen into that trap. So now he looks like he's trying too hard to do something big instead of just playing his natural game and letting it flow naturally. I've no doubt his form will come though.

[Pendragon]

Cian needs game time, no substitute for it. I would still put big Seany in that bracket as well, he did great but will keep getting better with every runout. I would also start Jack v Bath.

[Darce]

Nigel is one of the only competent refs out there. The general refereeing standard is very low. They really, really need to be more sympathetic to the attacking team in terms of penalising for holding on, and need to actually start giving penalties for the defensive line being offside - if necessary 5 or 6 times in a row with a sin binning until the offenders get it. Then we'd see the attacking team rewarded rather than punished as it is currently. If you watch Nigel you'll see that he gives the attacking team 2 or 3 times the amount of time to clear out opposition players going for the steal at the ruck, and rightly so. He's also incredibly strict on not rolling away.

Makes for a much better, attack-orientated spectacle.

I think Nigel is on the wane, myself. Thought he was desperately poor Vs. Zebre when we had him last.

I think he's gone a bit too into his profile IMO. Nearly more interested in getting a new one liner out there than reffing a game.

Formally the top guy cira 2011-2013/14 but standards have slipped

[simonokeeffe]

Garces announced as ref

[nc6000]

Garces announced as ref

This was announced last week.