Munster v Toulouse, Part 1

Source: Patrick Bolger/Getty Images Europe

This past weekend the Heineken Cup quarter-finals were staged and there was fantastic rugby on display in all four matches with some of Europe's best club sides slugging it out. I won't go into the details of the matches for the sake of those that have not seen the games yet (YouTube!) nor will this be a column on one of the more remarkable incidents that completely altered the outcome of one of the matches (for the record, yellow card at most in my eyes). 

The Munster v Toulouse game (highlights) on Saturday was a fascinating affair because of the contrasting performances of the two teams, Munster carving deep holes in the Toulouse defence while the French side bumbled their way around the field offensively, shorn of a real attacking plan it seemed. The scores of the Irishmen were built up methodically, as they out-muscled a pack that was considerably larger than theirs and used a maul that walked at will. It was truly a match that showed Munster are a sum greater than their parts. 

I want to highlight today, in two parts to make them more digestible, the one try put up by Toulouse (around the 2:50 mark of the highlight package) because it was the complete personification of their performance and a classic symbol for what French rugby means to so many: a try from nothing. Watch that try, and we'll discuss what happened in the lead up and the break that led to the score.

Some Thoughts based on 6 Nations penalty data

                                                             At its best                         (c) Getty Images

At the onset of the 6 Nations tournament when looking at some of the talking points for each team I discussed the penalty counts incurred last year and the impact that had for the respective sides. At the time I thought it would be interesting to look back once the Championship had concluded to examine the penalty count as a reflection of Referee performance. You often hear from the respective media of each nation that so-and-so don't like their country and always referee them harshly, and thought it would be interesting to see if there was any evidence of that during these 15 games.

Additionally, the last couple weeks of Super Rugby action has seen some terrible officiating recently that led to a discussion of relieving referees from their duties (which frankly should have happened but alas, another battle). There has been a lot of different debate about where to place the fault of these disputed contests: should it be on the players, who are committing infractions or is the referee and his interpretation wrong? Both sides have merit, poor officiating can have a disturbing effect on the direct outcome of a game, while players can also make poor choices.

The 6 Nations is a great spectacle because each match has the potential to be won by either side (even if it's a small chance) and because each point is valuable. Referees play a role in the outcome of matches, as their interpretation of each action . The point of this article though isn't to get bogged down in semantics about the intent of a referee, so let's look at some statistics!