Munster Team Talk Thread - New season title pending....

Oh I'm not doubting that he can make mistakes but when he's in the middle for an Interpro involving 1 or even two teams he previously played with, those mistakes are magnified.

For what it's worth, I thought he was very good in the Bordeaux vs. Bristol game the weekend

Yeah, possibly so, but either way, it's putting him in an impossible position, and inviting scrutiny and criticism.

Yeah, of course, it's all big bad Leinster's fault.

I don't want to get into and endless round of trying to clarify what the other said, but I would take comments like

Imo, it all goes back to that game in Thomond where Leinster completely lost their discipline and Since then, he's continued to receive a completely unfair level of criticism are absolutely clearly implying it's the fault of Leinster and, connectedly, their fanbase.

When the reality is fans of all four provinces (including Munster) have been extremely critical of Murphy's refereeing performance.

It was heightened in the URC knock out last year obviously, but that's arguably the biggest stage he's refereed an interpro at.

I don't think he was the decisive factor in that game, but Leinster fans will naturally feel aggrieved that he declined to card Barron for high hit on Connors in the first couple of minutes and in Murray Kinsella's piece titled 'Anatomy of a Drop Goal' where he goes through the phases leading to the Crowley drop goal, he also suggests "Munster were lucky to get away with Scannell's run ahead of the ball here" at a point when he clearly interferes with a potential tackler, and highlights how fortunate they were a phase or two later to get away with Josh Wycherley flopping over a ruck off his feet, with Kinsella highlighting "Frank Murphy is seemingly content that it hasn't denied Leinster a turnover", and finally there's the sequence immediately before the drop goal, where Jack O'Donoghue and Niall Scannell are clearly using their hands to scoop the ball back in the ruck (after Healy's big counter ruck). Any of these events could have been called as a penalty against Munster, and obviously weren't.

In an incredibly tight game, these are the fine margins, and it's entirely reasonable for Leinster fans to expect that the guy tasked with making those calls in that situation isn't a former player & supporter of the opposite team.

Yeah, I completely agree with you, I can't stand the "cheat / bought and paid for" type talk, and never have believed it of any referee. But it's a microcosm of the general criticism he receives.

They should just refrain from putting him in that position going forward; he shouldn't be refereeing games involving Munster or Connacht.