Bill W (2) wrote:Tigerbeat wrote:
I thought Wayne Barnes had a good game.
Then I would hate to see him have a bad game!
5 Red Cards, 23 yellow cards, a punch up every 2 minutes?
I suppose that would have been worse.
I agree, shocking behaviour by Wayne Barnes... he really shouldn't have incited all of the players to start niggling and eventually start punching and headbutting each other. He is entirely to blame.
Back in the real world, it's very slightly possible that the players were fired up for this game and wanting to even a few scores. Hence the frequent handbags and flare ups. Other than sending players off sooner (and for what?) I struggle to see what any of the officials could have done.
It was just a feisty game and there wasn't, in my opinion, any more off the ball activity than any other game I've seen recently. It's just that tempers flared on one or two occasions which resulted in a bout of fisticuffs (and headicuffs) and two rightful red cards. The two yellows were just for persistent infringements in the red zone - nothing to do with tempers and thoroughly good reffing.
I did feel WB let players away with a lot of infringement at the tackle area, specifically not releasing the tackled player. In some cases he then pinged the attacker for not releasing the ball, despite the fact the tackler never let him go (and, in at least one case, was actually incapable of releasing because he'd been wrapped up). Other than that, though, a good performance.