NO doubt about the big talking point from Saturday’s loss to Wales, namely the inability of referee George Clancy and television match official Graham Hughes to spot the double offence that allowed Gareth Davies to score Wales’s first try.
All sorts of excuses are being made for the dimwit duo, such as the ball hitting Duncan Taylor and playing all the Welsh onside, but remember that Clancy and Hughes had the benefit of slow motion television replays and they clearly show that Taylor never touched the ball.
Here’s how Andrew Fraser of Inverness sees things: “In the light of the comments in The National about George Clancy’s and Graham Hughes’ mistake which may have cost Scotland victory on Saturday, I wonder if you know that Scotland have always lost when Clancy is officiating.
“Admittedly, given the frequency of Scottish defeats that record may not be too difficult to achieve but there have been three occasions I can think of when his mistakes have cost us the match starting with his very first game when he must have been the only person in the Stade de France who failed to see the huge forward pass which gave France a try which proved decisive in the end.
“I know it is not the done thing in rugby to question the referees’ decisions and generally that is a good tradition to maintain but it has got to the stage that I know if Clancy is in charge, Scotland will lose, a result I correctly predicted before last year’s match against Italy.”
Well isn’t that an interesting statistic? Perhaps the former Scotland legend John Jeffrey can do something about it as chairman of World Rugby’s referee selection board.
Andrew Fraser makes another very good point: “More generally I am puzzled as to why it has been so long since Scotland produced a referee on the international panel, and even Scottish touch judges are a rarity.
“This also seems to apply to the Pro-12 League. On the other hand there seem to be a plethora of Irish refs, most of them not very good.
“Are there so few refs of a sufficient standard that the Pro-12 matches can often be in the hands of an official from the country of one of the teams playing?
“I realise that no matter which team one supports one always sees the decisions which go against that team as unduly harsh and imagine the other side is getting away with everything, but it does concern me that Scotland does not seem to be able to produce refs of a high standard.
“I wonder if you and your readers can add to this?”
If you can add any views on this matter, e-mail them to nationalrucker@gmail.com.
Please also keep sending your funny stories about the Five or Six Nations. We’ll need them for next week as the tournament now takes its first weekend break and it seems like as good a time as any to have some laughs, especially because we are Scotland fans.
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