today ref

[apps]

i know some people migth say he had a good game but from what i seen i think rc migth say other wise

1. bath prop (bell) never binded.
2. bath scrum ball was feed like rubgy league.
3. some of the off the ball cases i e young hled down.
4. some of the late tackles from kick's.
5. saying bw was not binded when the bath player went to jump over the ruck which is a leagel.
6. 1 m gap in the line out never there.

these are the few thing i pick up as a ref & i have been told from the army refree soc as well as the lsrur & from the rfu how can the ref today get away with that.

yes i know if he was to blow up for every thing there be no game but some of these are what we as refs got to clap down on.

[maxy437]

I thought he was appalling IMO

[MJ Chairman]

I don't usually comment on refs but I thought that Small was dreadful and it appeared that often the players were as confused as the crowd

[GT1]

Completely out of his depth as per normal & this bloke refs internationals god help us. I am getting fed up with substandard referees looking after the weaker team & keeping them in the game with penalty's because they are not strong enough to ref what they see. There is a thread on here asking if refs can influence the out come of games well yes they can as seen today.

[JWM]

Very disappointing ref. A difficult day for rugby weatherwise, but it was the reffing that cast a cloud on the game.

In addition to what has been mentioned was the 'crouch, touch, pause, engage'. He wasn't even consistent with his own rhythm, let alone anything like a consistent standard across refereeing.

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

I counted 14 offside for infront of the kicker - this was only from open play, there were more from kick offs/22m.
Bubbles got called on this rightly so, but I think this was the only time Tigers obviously did it and got called on it.

Two up-and-unders landing near Bath players who were not actively retreating.

Tried to take Smurph out in the air but got bounced off - then penalty against Tigers after Tuilagi cleared 3 men out and went to ground.
Next phase with Bath in possession three men came in from all angles diving in with no effort to stay on their feet.

He once indicated a penalty to Bath for Tigers crossing..... in a maul!

One of the worst displays I have seen - only time I have seen worse is another match refereed by Small!


On the other hand Bath did defend well and didn't give away penalties for needless hands in the ruck/diving over when defending deep in their own 22 - very good discipline and patience

[jolou]

Poor and inconsistant reffing.

[westwinds31]

Liked the sound of his own voice as well. Let's hope we get someone decent at Kingsholm.

[Lis113]

From the comments on radio leicester it sounded like he was rubbish

[Tyzot]

He was!

[G.K]

Yet again Small comes up short, if you'll forgive the pun.

I was baffled by many of the decisions he made and again felt I was watching a game with different rules to RFU.

In particular can anyone explain the Classens incident and why it resulted in a penalty to Bath?

[Tiger_in_Birmingham]

Yet again Small comes up short, if you'll forgive the pun.

I was baffled by many of the decisions he made and again felt I was watching a game with different rules to RFU.

In particular can anyone explain the Classens incident and why it resulted in a penalty to Bath?

I assumed the referee felt the ball was out, and as such Tigers were tackling the man without the ball

Looked to me like Ben was still digging around for the ball at the time though

[Old Hob]

Agree about the poor standard of refereeing. Our boys not wholly blameless (Hem hem) but serious infringements missed all over the place. Bath collapsed a maul so obviously in the first half people on passing buses noticed - which leads me to ask: what is the point of the "assistant referees" / linesmen? They have a radio link so perhaps it is that the ref just ignores them

[fentiger]

I don`t recall seeing Geordan speak to the ref during a match as much as yesterday. One thing I have thought in the past is that perhaps he doesn`t talk to ref enough! Could it have counted against us yesterday?

I too thought this ref was inept. It seemed that there were a lot of penalties conceded by Bath in their own half, but the ref appeared to not even speak to their captain about it. Whenever they got remotely within kicking distance we, as if by magic, conceded a penalty!