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October 11, 2004

Glasgow can learn from streetwise Munster

Posted by Editor on October 11, 2004 08:41 AM | 3 comments | Print | E-mail author

Hugh Campbell thinks Glasgow can learn from a streetwise Munster team
After watching Glasgow go down to a frustrating defeat to Munster with the the last kick of the game, Hugh Campbell claims Glasgow will have to learn to cheat better until referees start dealing more effectively with cynical opponents

In today's Herald, Hugh claims Glasgow can learn from the way Munster react to referees.

"They're a very experienced team and I thought they played the referee very well," he said. "They cheat very well and get away with it. There was a lot of pulling back, holding down, screening off the ball that the referee and his touch judges didn't seem to pick up.

"It's a concern that we're not as streetwise and tend to get pinged when we do transgress. It's just the way we play. We're a bit too honest."

A first-half sin-binning of Donny Macfadyen, his third of the season, means he faces a one-match supension. The yellow card was given for killing the ball at the breakdown, which Munster did repeatedly but for which no cards were presented.

Donnie's mistake was offending close to his line and until officials improve their understanding of the game and realise that such infringements, further out, achieve exactly the same purpose, that is, preventing try-scoring opportunities, then those using such measures only as a last resort will continue to be singled out. "I thought Donny's yellow card was harsh, considering the number of balls that were killed early on. It's inconsistency," Hugh charged.

Fair enough, but, in this hard-nosed era, Hugh accepted that some may regard as un-professional players who do not show the flexibility required to respond quickly to how matches are being refereed.

"You could say that, but you could also say that you can aim to be a team which gives away very few penalties," he countered. "Against Munster, that's something we wanted to do, to keep them out of the game in terms of lineouts, which is their strength."

Comments
Posted by swansea jock on October 11, 2004 08:20 PM | Reply to this comment

I agree with what hugh says there seems to be a naivety about scottish pro team rugby at the moment.I watched Leinster throw everything into slowing down Edinburgh`s possession.There were boots,elbows,knees,shoving,pulling,if they`d had a kitchen sink I`m
sure they would have used it.They are experts at slowing down ball.
We don`t seem to protect at the breakdowns and either get turned over or worse the ball ripped out of their hands.

Posted by alan on October 11, 2004 09:43 PM | Reply to this comment

All very true, but that does not absolve the referee of his responsibility to see the obvious........

Posted by steve on October 13, 2004 10:35 AM | Reply to this comment

At one point in the last 10 minutes a Munster player was blatantly off his feet and all over the ball 3 metres out from his own line -if I can see it from the touchline, how can the referee and the near-side touch judge miss it? - its just not good enough - the quality of the refereeing has been dismal. But Glasgow need to get the basics right and the concentration right then we wont be talking about the referees - if Glasgow had done that on Saturday and secured the restarts we would have beaten Munster.

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