Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Of course, ignored in the process will be yet another abject display by Peyper. It's well and right that Sexton, and players in general, be punished for abusing match officials. There's no similar transparency when it comes to refs who repeatedly show that they aren't competent enough to be in charge of elite level games.

Complete storm in a teacup. In the video he talks to the ref for about 2 seconds, and people are comparing that to Rassie posting hour long videos about refs on twitter? Laughable

I think that was in relation to the two sentries that Leinster put on his door at halftime to stop the nasty ROG going in to abuse the ref but then one of those sentries goes out at fulltime and does what he was trying to prevent at halftime.

Strange behaviour

I hope he has a better defense for what was said than your offering.

How can you go from saying We don't know what Sexton did, to 'It was completely different to what Erasmus did'

TBH, what Sexton did was actually worse. Rassie made some stupid youtube videos and tweets questioning refereeing decisions, Sexton, someone who was neither a coach, nor a player involved in the match day, marched onto the pitch, and repeatedly confronted the referees in an intimidating fashion.

He had absolutely no business doing that, and if any other spectator at that match had gotten onto the pitch and behaved like that, they'd have been escorted off the pitch and would likely be banned from the venue.

Referees are getting more and more abuse from fans, coaches and players and it is something that absolutely has to be stamped out. Having the Captain of a losing team, who wasn't even involved in the match day, deliberately and repeatedly verbally abusing a referee in person after a game is absolutely unacceptable.

The 'disgusting attitude of 'a 'certain section of irish fans'??? What? the fans that don't think players should get away with abusing referees?

Rassie got a 1 year matchday ban for what he did, and a 2 month ban from All rugby activities.

If Sexton got even half of that punishment, a 1 month ban from 'all rugby' would put him out of the irish training camp leading up to the RWC

Not gonna happen, he'll likely get a x match ban

One thing to think of is bans only count when you're available for selection. so if you're injured, the ban can't cover matches where you wouldn't have been available to play

Sexton is training at some level, but there are concerns that he is still not match fit and may not be fully recovered before the warmups start, so any ban would only start when he is fit and available for selection

(the IRFU could pretend always declare that he's fit, but that would just be asking for some French Journalist to video him hobbling around a training pitch and then the IRFU are up for bringing the game into disrepute)

This is why people don't come here anymore

Ah in fairness

A) Peyper wasn't that bad

B) there very much is a review process for referee performance

C) abusing the guy (if that's what happened) isn't going to achieve anything once the game is over

If the reports are accurate, the only guilty party here is Sexton.

EPCR are in a real bind here. If they ban him, IRFU will want to know what motivated them to open this investigation weeks after the match. If they don't ban him, the South Africans will claim it's yet more evidence of a conspiracy against them.

I disagree wholeheartedly with your first point. Peyper has frequently been in charge of games where he's failed to act on clearly dangerous acts. He didn't call a stoppage after the La Rochelle player was clearly knocked out, despite being right next to him. He (and the tmo) missed a clear as day shoulder to the head of Al'alatoa. That's in addition to all the other areas he was poor in.

He is a really poor ref, and particularly in a fashion that puts player safety at risk. WR's review process is not transparent, nor consistent. That's quite evident in the continued disparity in application of laws surrounding head contact. It's a professional sport, refs should also be held to a clear standard.

There is something that seems dodgy about this having taken so long to be dealt with. If it was in season it would have been the following week. The delay has allowed it to be built up.

I'd love BigBok's take on all of this... 😊

Brilliant news if that's the case. I hate how frequently promising players get caught in these injury cycles

Think there’s only pictures of him in the gym and not on the pitch though? To take the bibs in training logic the next level, every player is wearing a navy/green piece of clothing, apart from Osbourne, who’s in bright orange. Could mean he’s on a recovery schedule program and not training with the squad or more likely could mean nothing at all

From the pictures. There are a few of Farrell specifically talking to the half backs. 4 scrum halves and 4 out halves. Frawley is in this group. So you'd imagine if Sexton is ruled out he is 3rd choice ahead of bringing in another outhalf.

Wasn't there a SH ref abused recently? Saw some stuff online about it. Not by a player but by fans I think. That would have me a bit worried that the powers that be might make an example of Sexton, this sort of thing is creeping into the game. One look at the match thread here on the day would back that up.

It was very idiotic of Sexton to approach the refs on the day, let alone have his say. He does have a petulant streak that goes against him at times.