Where's your father referee?

My perception of Clancy and Kaplan is that they take a good overview of the game, and go out looking to enjoy the game, whereas Lawrence and Rolland seem to go out thinking "how many people am I gonna ping / card today, I love my cards, almost as much as my whistle and the sound of my own voice"

"Romain Poite is probably the most consistanly good ref in world rugby. And with out the faintest doubt in my mind the best ref in the world when it comes to the scrum"

I can only assume you tongue is well wedged into your cheek there DBM...

Like you I like Owens, we always seem to do well when he's in charge.
I don't think we ever get any change out of Barnes. The French, however, love him to bits as he speaks a bit of French and gives them a lot of breaks. They despise Owens even more than you Pearson (who nobody rates).
I still think it's odd that Rolland gets French games. OK, he's officially Irish but still... who was it sent Warburton off again?

Obviously I think NZ like to avoid a certain Wayne Barnes although the Clancy and Dave Pearson are not far behind. No lingering grudges there, but for one thing, none of them like to play advantage fully.

Barnes can be a consistent and attentive ref for 70 minutes and just when you're about to praise him he does something ludicrous and unforgivable.

Not at all Taras.

Romain Poite has prsided over two HC finals and one with Leinster so i quite like him, he is a bit pedantic but very equal and consistent, and has glowing reports from many players. If France had nat made the final of the WC he would have been the ref. Thats not my opinion thats a fact.

Anyway, the one consistent thing across the board is that there is no consistency, we all have different opinions on who is the worst and who we prefer.

Which is actually rather interesting.

The other thing is that I can't Pearson as he doesn't ref England games, likewise Rolland for Ireland and Owens for Wales.

Maybe England should offer Rolland, Lawrence and Owens a relocation, and Enda Kenny could dig out a passport for Dave Pearson - though the Israeli embassy would be closer to the ground if he wanted one quicker .....

Exactly right SARS... which is why i have kept my gob shut about Rolland... Because i think he as a bloody excellent ref
LMAO
To be fair SARS, we see our home ref's in action alot. For example Owns Refs Welsh clubs Against Irish clubs on a regular basis in the Pro12. same with Clancy etc etc
Which actually is something i have noticed, that sometimes Owens is quite harsh with the Welsh clubs, perhaps trying to illustrate he is not bias by over compensating?

Clancy cut his teeth in the Pro 12 and now is fully an international Ref... but really i think he should never have been let out of the local pub league.

Another talking point regarding officiating would be the gulf of style between the northern and southern hemispheres. Certainly the SH refs dont allow the player with the ball as much time to release.

Can anyone remember those two godawful refs? The two Scottish brothers...The Changalangs? Something like that...

I remember one of the brothers (well, one in particular) had howler after howler and everyone was baying for him to be relegated to pub league to learn his trade. His brother wasn't any better, just a less infamous version. Thankfully they both disappeared off the radar a few years ago.

I don't think they were biased (but I remember having a sense of dread if they were reffing one of the Welsh regions), just really, really terrible.

awwww ye gecko!!!... how we forget them, Malcolm and bloody David Changleng!!! aka "the changalangs"

one of them is still around but only seems to be a TMO from what i can see. but yes they were DIRE!
from what others have said, we can have 3 categories
The first two are a matter of perspective :D
1, Good for your country
2, bad for your country
3, Incompetent idiots

"The Changalangs" as they were affectionately known, were most defiantly in the later category.

Slightly off topic, but I was watching the world 7's a few months back and remember a young black SA ref, who's name escapes me, but he was mustard.

I know 7's if a different game to 15's, but he was up with play 95% of the time, even on breaks, and I don't recall him making any obvious errors.

Too many 'old boys' on the IRB reffing board I think. New blood is required.

HM

Its a fair point!