Owen Doyle: Strong referee performance is vital when La Rochelle visit the Aviva next weekend

A strong refereeing performance will be vital when La Rochelle come to visit next weekend.

Their arrival owes much to the capricious Cape Town wind which did nothing to assist Manie Libbok’s failed last-minute conversion attempt, which would have seen the Stormers snatch victory by a point. Leinster came through an unexpectedly hard challenge from Leicester Tigers, thanks to the sublime running lines of Jamison Gibson-Park, and a desperately needed intercept try by Robbie Henshaw – the latter was a mighty swing on the scoreboard.

While referee Pierre Brousset’s performance was in the okay category, much stronger refereeing was needed, particularly at scrum time – they were a shambles. He did his best, but it must be said that it is a very tricky job when teams do not want to scrummage positively. It is a key characteristic of the game and an immense attacking platform. But, in their Shape of the Game discussion forums, all that World Rugby have come up with is a proposal to further reduce the number of scrums. Seems like running up the white flag – it’s a shame.

Brousset was reactive, overly patient and talkative, instead of having and delivering a clear plan to increase the level of sanction. While he did say something about bringing on a couple of replacement props, the message was weak, not convincing. The referee missed his first Six Nations this year through injury, so he’s not yet one of the more experienced officials on the circuit.

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I have no idea why World Rugby don’t trial props supporting their own body weight throughout the scrummage. The current balancing act between two packs weighing the guts of a ton would be a fine circus act, but is completely at odds with the written laws. But does anybody care? Surely somebody needs to.

While things looked bad for La Rochelle at half-time, their comeback was largely engineered by their enormous pack, and that is another reason why the refereeing performance in Dublin on Saturday will be vital. These huge men swamp the breakdown at high velocity, and the refereeing of this area is likely to be a crucial key to Saturday’s result.

Neither were Leinster squeaky clean at the breakdown. Caelan Doris, once again, seemed to benefit from a moment of over-preventative refereeing, but his luck is due to run out. Then Andrew Porter, in a moment of madness, hurtled over a ruck, giving Brousset the easiest of penalty decisions. I am not sure what the prop thought he could achieve, but Leinster cannot afford the concession of needless penalties. This one put immense pressure on their defence, only relieved when Brousset found a fairly innocuous offside penalty against the Tigers.

Munster will find no consolation whatsoever that they contributed handsomely to a great match against Northampton. World Rugby’s reimagining of the game, with law changes to match, won’t do better than what we saw at Franklin’s Gardens. It’s impossible to force teams to play to a certain style by a series of alterations to what’s written in the book, no matter how well intended.

Referee Mike Adamson had an unexpectedly easy day at the office, his hardest job being to keep out of the way.

It looked like it’d be the same for Welshman Ben Whitehouse in Montpellier against Ulster. But, having led comfortably at half-time by 17-7, the home team gift-wrapped an important win for Richie Murphy’s men. One accurate red card plus three yellows, all coming in that second half, enabled Ulster to run out easy winners, 40-17, without ever setting the world alight. Paul Willemse, who received his marching orders against Ireland in Marseilles, was the red recipient.

Whitehouse, more usually a TMO these days, was a replacement for Craig Evans, which points, once again, to a shortage of elite refs at this level. While I might question the haste of a couple of the yellows, Whitehouse delivered them with no less than total confidence.

Connacht wrapped up the weekend with a terrific, nail-biting, win in Pau. The Italian, Andrea Piardi was in charge, and he’s probably already invited his TMO Matteo Liperini to the finest Italian dinner that money can buy. Piardi was well positioned in-goal as Bundee Aki drove for the line. Inexplicably, he then ran back infield, out of that good position, making it impossible to judge the touchdown. Liperini did very well to spot the score among a sea of bodies, and advise Piardi to change his “on-field” no-try decision. These decisions are obviously critical and can make or break the reputation of any aspiring referee, hence the dinner invitation.

While all this was going on, Irish referee Frank Murphy was in Bordeaux. This French team might well be a surprise package, they really put Saracens to the sword, 45-12 despite the officials ruling out multiple home team “tries”, five by my count, probably a world record.

The ubiquitous TMO Brian MacNeice had a busy day, and it’s hard to criticise his work. However, the forward pass call by assistant Eoghan Cross, denying Damien Penaud a try, is clearly worthy of such criticism. While the referee would have done much better to play on, then check it after the touchdown, it was so far away from the principle of being “clear and obvious” that it defied logic. If that is the measure of a forward pass, then we’re all in trouble.