However due to the welter of comment I have included a selection of comments on the man in the middle. Chris did you ever get an answer to your question to the Ref?   For those of a sensitive nature look away now….

 

The Ref.

 

I don't like to moan about ref's, but today I did feel we had a reasonable case for complaining. If only he could recognise an off side when he was faced with it so many times, still no exscuse the Exlies deserved to win a close game.  Saint Michael

 

At the First XV de-brief afterwards, Smithy refused to accept that it was the ref that lost us the match. "The ref is something we have no control over"  Mind you he did say he would have liked to have had one of the touch judge's bl***dy flag things then at least he would have be able to help the ref out with some of his decisions    St Bart

 

And on a thread entitled “Seamus O’Pearson-Murphy”

 

Did anyone else notice a degree of bias in the referee today? Dorcan8

 

He was very poor today - but not biased.
Actually apart from never pinging hands in the ruck, high tackles, tacking the player without the ball... And apart from poor communication with two touch judges (who seemed unwilling to help much anyway), missing a string of knock-ons and an absolutely ludicrous use of the yellow card (not Morris - I didn't see that - but you've GOT to card a player who's ten yards off-side)...  As I say, apart from that, Pearson had a good game.   Ballagher

 

We can blame the ref all we want but if we make 'stupid schollboy errors' (Andy Blowers words not mine) like the third try then we have no one to blame but ourselves. Chris the Saint

 

It was worse than a schoolboy error - that was absolutely unforgiveable.  And I still haven't calmed down over that useless pillock.   Mark H

 

Pearson was useless. He missed so much yet seemed to give not a toss as he leered his way through the game….   …….He seemed completely unwilling to card Irish for professional fouls.  No, Irish were deserving winners but poor reffing ruins a game for everyone. Stockers

 

 

Palpable disappointment/The Gift????

 

Please cut out the positive stuff on the match repory on the Offy. We threw that away.A knock-on in our 22, they spin the ball wide...try. Penalty, we go to sleep... Mapletoft goes over. A 14 point gift. You can't start playing when you're 17 points down. We were much better than them BUT.....
….. We can't blow games like that.  Cheesey

 

Not so much gift wrapped tries as also served by a butler in a silver salver. When we let in those 2 tries from our mistakes we were deep in slumber.   Dorcan8

 

BUT I was more angry - though quietly so with a poor performance from many of our lot. Irish were not that good - we made too many mistakes and were suckered by Mapletoft.
Also I saw three Saints play hard and intelligently for all of the game - Shane , Sharky and Bruce - Lordy put in a real effort in the second half and Bealer had some flashes of get up and go .  There is a lot of work still to be done.  Old Pete

 

argh ! broonie

 

But the difference in the sides was that stupid Mapletoft try - well done to the lad for spotting we were asleep! Claire Jones

 

We watched part of the match video in First XV bar before WS came in, and Mapletoft never indicated that he was going to kick for goal.  But Smithy seemed to imply that the physio attending the injured Irish player contributed a bit of confusion and delay which Mapletoft took advantage of.  Nevertheless, we should have been more awake St Bart

 

If you check the result, I'll think you'll find that it was legal Craig in w

 

Did the video show whether the touch judges were behind the posts or running the lines? Mark H

 

I was sitting in the south stand and I was day dreaming and cannot remember whether the touch judges were behind the posts or not.It took me by syrprise as i thought a player was still being treated.But as I say I wasn't paying attention-a lesson there perhaps?  desbralass

 

Don't worry, I know that at least 15 other people weren't watching either - more's the pity... Mark H

 

At the end of the day when Grayson kicks a similar ball accross field into Big Bens waiting arms for a try we all cheer, teh whole team got caught and must have felt pretty stupid - BIG lesson learned.  I thought Mapletoft was true class - best game I have ever seen him have (unfortuntaly) Dave Jackson

 

Agree with that Dave - he was the classiest player on the field. Mark H

 

the sort of elementary mistake you'd be pretty disgusted with at u-11 level broonie

 

Jannie deBeer did exactly the same thing to us at LI a couple of season's ago playing for Sarries.  He was about 40 m out at the time and they scored.  Tofty wasn't playing for us at the time, but anyway, it is a pretty standard trick.  Shaw-Shank

 

The TJs were clearly on the touch lines throughout. John Clarke clearly noticed that the winger was out on the line (a la Ben C). He moved to cover the winger but didn't pull any of his team mates across with him hence the gap for Mapletoft. I put this down to his relative inexperience. SJ

 

But the pack had already formed a loose huddle so there wasn't much cover for him to call across anyway. Chris the Saint

 

Weak Pack

 

we looked ok in the scrums until renaud pinged his calf again after a quarter of an hour or so.
the lineout , however was where we lost it for me, as our only safe ball was to chewy who after a while was double teamed, but did magnificently to keep producing ball.
however this meant we had no dynamic ball at all ,; after all, what do you do with 2 ball ? if you pass it, then you need the 10 relatively deep or he's going to get gubbed , so your 3/4s are left playing in front of the defence and you concede the gainline .
so you drive it - or in our case yesterday, you try to drive it. and you cough it up on a regular basis while getting bogged down in a wrestling match with an opposing pack a stone or more heavier per man who are just made for trundling and grunting, though not for more modern forms of the game . and, as the first LI try demonstrated, turnover ball is a killer
had deso been fit , i have little doubt we could have at least competed at the lineout on their ball, as well as being able to get some off the top at o 6 ; this in turn would have kept the offside line somewhere near honest. however, to me this says we are one player deep as far as deso is concerned - and that won't change even when the rwc is over. Broonie

 

Good points well made Broonie agree ref the line out and Chewy did really well, butas you say it all became so prdictable and slow grunt. I am a bit worried again aboout the pack as Renaud's recurring injury is worrying. Saintsby

 

Somebody asked Tinman about transfers after the game but said they were looking at players for next term. Chris the saint

 

Agree with your comments Broonie, but how can it be fixed with the present, unbalanced squad?  What seems odd to me about our squad is that we have up to half a dozen players that would walk straight into virtually any ZP side and quite a few who wouldn't get into any of them.  Ian Spokes

 

I reckon there was a bit of fencing in Tinman's response to that question. One thing we've always done is to our keep powder dry on transfers, and l'm sure professionals like WS, Rats etc are very well aware of the situation and will make sure we have the best solution in the end. St bart

 

Based on todays/yesterdays performance, I can't see the return of our internationals making much of a dent either, we are just looking too light weight. JSB

 

tight head and a Second Row please, I think a couple of the Argentians will do. Gazmo

 

I really look forward ( in the same way that a pathologist does to picking over the bones ) to Broonie's forensic analysis after all the fuss has died down a bit.  As usual he is spot on -
Could I just add - Peillard is a concern - how many minutes of rugby have we had from him - i fear a case of scelzos neck here !!!
…. We need a Lock with some umph as well as ariel skills and probably a really horrible grizzled prop or two. Old Pete

 

On the player front, we bring in a no. 9, Sharky ( who I whole-heartedly think will be a success ), however who is the top player who has come through from the Academy system - Johnny Howard! + a prop who after 22.7% of this seasons Premiership games has played aboou 40 minutes!!..at least Shane has been an inspired signing!
I think that thw squad still isn't good enough & this will be another season where we will feel disappointed overall at the end of it.  BBF

 

It is hard to knock some one for getting injured, is Budge a waste of salary? give the guy a chance.  Ajack

 

Here here, people don't put their bodies on the line just to get injured St Bart

 

i think renaud just needs a bit of love . he is a hugely emotional player, he plays in often devastating surges, and the easiest way of making him into a bad signing will be to get on his case. props get calf injuries , it's a fact.  i watched him knock over 3 guys beacause he was too pumped in the warm- up , i saw him stay on for 40 mins after his calf pinged . this guy will repay faith. he wants to play for saints. broonie

 

Drahm weakness

 

I have been hugely impressed with Wee Dram and cannot believe that Bristol used him at 15 when he is so obviously talented in the 10 shirt. His try today was something Grayson could never have done, even in his absolute prime. I can see that Shane is going to become a real Franklin's legend.
The only thing I think Drahm could have done better yesterday, which I think Larry would have done, is use the amount of possession we had in the second half a bit better. Instead of trying to run play after play, I am sure that Larry would have kicked deep into the corners and forced the Irish to play very deep into their own 22.  Saint Kenneth

 

On The London Irish report

 

Intreresting and informative report from LI and perceptive in picking up on Saints weaknesses. And, as all supporters views should be suitably one-eyed where it matters! Ie several references to AB's efforts to slow the ball down, but in contrast the "awesome" Dawson is simply getting to the breakdown quickly!
Further LI's defence is described as "rush up" defence whereas most Saints (and I suspect other supporters) would call it the "offside" defence. It's all very well "rushing up", but when your outside centre and winger already start from in front of the back foot it does squeeze the space rather quickly! Can't blame LI if they continue to get away with this, but you have to question what the touch judges are there for. The ref is busy reffing the contact situation and the offside line around it (at least allegedly), but surely the touch judge should be assiting the ref on keeping the backline onside?  Jimbob

 

I would also say that Irish were the better team and deserved the win today. Mark H

 

Budge’s sense of humour!

 

Listening to the webcast (and bearing in mind Budge was there), sounded like the ref was very even handed. He missed everything from both sides... some quotes:
"I think he's looking to the touch judge... I'm not surprised, it happened more than two yeards away so he must have missed it..."
Commentator: "And an extra ten yards for backchat. I think it'd be a good idea if they had that rule in football. Well, they do, but it's never enforced, or they'd spend half the match going back and forth on the pitch."
Budge: "And then the players would go on strike." CliveJ

 

The ‘Oh I wish I had seen that’ moment

 

While your here Mr Ref, what would you do if a player walked up and wiped there nose on your shirt for no apparent reason?   Chris the Saint