Poite to take charge of Munster against Saints

HEINEKEN CUP REFEREES:MUNSTER MAY be slightly unnerved to learn the French referee, Romain Poite, will be in charge of their concluding Heineken Cup pool game and likely group decider against Northampton on Friday, January 22nd. Poite was the inexperienced and controversial figure in the eye of a Thomond Park storm when refereeing the All Blacks' 18-16 win over Munster in November 2008, and he was also in charge for London Irish's 12-9 win over Leinster in the opening round this season.

As for the holders’ likely winner-takes-all finale against London Irish at the Madejski Stadium the next day, the referee will be Nigel Owens, with whom they have had a few run-ins in the past. However, he was also in charge of Leinster’s semi-final win over Munster last season as well as the final against Leicester.

Maintaining something of a trend in the competition to date, both Munster and Leinster will have English referees in charge of their penultimate pool games, away to Treviso and at home to Brive, respectively, the weekend after next.

The experienced Chris White, one of only three referees to have overseen more than 50 Heineken Cup games, has been appointed to the Treviso-Munster match on Saturday, January 16th, while later that day Andrew Small will be the referee at the RDS.

Ulster will have two French referees for their concluding games at home to Edinburgh and away to Bath, namely Christophe Berdos at Ravenhill and Jerome Garces at the Rec.

One-third of the final two rounds of games will be refereed by Irishmen, with Alain Rolland, Alan Lewis (the other two officials to have taken charge of more than 50 games), George Clancy and Peter Fitzgibbon all appointed to games on both weekends.

Connacht will also have a familiar referee for their crunch Amlin Challenge Cup meeting with Montpellier in the shape of Scotland’s Peter Allan.

The Italian Stefano Traversi will be in charge of their final game away to the Spaniards Olympus Rugby.

Meanwhile, Barnhall RFC will host an egm tonight to debate and vote on a proposal to formalise a partnership between the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the club, and that the prefix “NUIM” be added to the name of the club to constitute “NUIM Barnhall RFC”.

This proposal received the unanimous backing of the NUIM Board of Governors on December 14th last, and subject to a positive outcome on Wednesday night in Barnhall, the club “expect enthusiastic backing from both the Leinster Branch and the IRFU”.

The club, which was founded on the grounds of the Irish Meat Packers in 1969 and rose from Division Two of the Leinster league to the AIB League in 1999 after two promotions in three years, reached something of a peak with its rise to Division Two but has found life more difficult in latter years.

Nonetheless, playing numbers are at the highest level in the club’s history and scholarship numbers from schools and other club players at NUIM and Barnhall Rugby Academy are at their highest ever.

Among other benefits, the proposal is seen as an opportunity to maximise the success of the NUIM Barnhall Rugby Academy in producing a consistent flow of talent to NUIM Barnhall RFC and to build a new brand identity to attract a wider support from thousands of students and from new corporate sponsors.