Rugby Pod rages over Poite: 'An absolute cowboy of a referee...'
Ex-England international Andy Goode has outlined his fury with Romain Poite, the French referee who gave Brad Shields a red card in last Sunday’s heavy Heineken Champions Cup defeat for Wasps at home to Munster. Shields was due to appear before an independent disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night following the 26th-minute incident where he tackled Dave Kilcoyne in Coventry.
Veteran ref Poite, who retired from Test rugby last month after taking charge of the Scotland-Australia match at Murrayfield, believed Shields had dangerously tackled the Munster prop, a red card decision that handed the initiative to the visitors who went on to win the match comfortably on a 35-14 scoreline.
Shields is a generally very disciplined player. It was only September when the 30-year-old was given the first red card of his career after two yellows in the same match for collapsed mauls in the Premiership, something he spoke at length about last month with RugbyPass in an extensive exclusive interview.
Before Shields’ midweek disciplinary hearing this week, Goode took the Wasps player’s latest red card incident to task on The Rugby Pod, the show he co-hosts with ex-Scotland lock Jim Hamilton. The pair were in full agreement that Poite had damningly got the first-half call wrong.
“It was a hell of an effort by Wasps and Munster, all the adversity they had,” said Goode, complimenting both teams for their dedication in ensuring the round one game went ahead as scheduled last Sunday. “There were something like 54 players missing from both teams.
Legend gets thrown around a lot, but Kevin Sinfield personifies the word. Such an inspiring chat on this week's Pod. Have a listen:
Spotify – https://t.co/zErzGKR83A pic.twitter.com/pZ2G9OLzur
— The Rugby Pod (@TheRugbyPod) December 14, 2021
“Actually to get the game on was pretty much near a miracle and then you rock up and you see referee Romain Poite is refereeing and you think why can’t he have an issue and someone else referees the game? It was an interesting game, exciting… there were errors, end-to-end stuff and then he sent Brad Shields off. He doesn’t even make contact with his head.”
Hamilton replied: “That red card is that bad that I can’t even come on here and joke that Wasps have lost another game and they got beaten by Munster who were depleted. That red card decision was that bad that I can’t even sit here and say anything about Wasps because that has wrecked it. It has wrecked the game and ruined Wasps’ chances of even competing in that game.”
Back to Goode: “I don’t see anywhere where he has made contact with his head.” Hamilton added: “He sped through it as well, the framework. The TMO even said in French. ‘Are you sure, no mitigation?'”
“I am not taking anything away from Munster, Munster were very good,” interjected Goode, an ex-Wasps player. “Munster would probably have won the game the way they played but for Romain Poite to send him [Shields] off was just ridiculous. It wasn’t even close to being a red card.”
Later in the show when doling out the good, the bad and the ugly awards from last weekend’s European action, Goode added: “It ain’t hard to work out where the bad is going this weekend. He is what is known as a cowboy. He is French, he is an absolute cowboy of a referee, Romain Poite, with that decision to send off Brad Shields with a red card. It is never a red. It doesn’t even make contact with his head for me. Romain Poite, you get the bad this week.”
The reference to Poite didn’t end there, though. “The ugly this week goes to an ex-teammate of mine, an ex-roommate of mine, he is quite a weird bloke as well, Rory Kockett,” continued Goode. “He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. There was a penalty given to him by the referee, a tackle by Alex Dombrandt caught him in the chops by accident.
“Rory Kockett spends the next 30 seconds trying to remonstrate with the referee, trying to get him binned or sent off or something. He said: ‘That is bullshit, referee, absolute bullshit.’ He kept saying bullshit. You can’t be talking to a referee like that, Rory Kockett. Pretty ugly scenes in terms of you have got to show the referee respect even though I have just absolutely hammered Romain Poite, but I am not a player so I can do that. Rory Kockett, you get the ugly this week.”
Comments on RugbyPass
We’re building a bridge but can't agree where the river is.
2 Go to commentsfirst no arms shoulder or helmet tackle into his rib cage is going to be so very painful even to watch. go back to RU mate.
1 Go to commentsBulls by 5. Plus another 50.
3 Go to commentsJohan Goosen avatar. Cute. Surely someone at RP knows how to do a google image search?
3 Go to commentsCan’t these games play a little earlier? Asking for a friend.
3 Go to commentsIt’s impressive that we can see huge stadiums with attendance in the 40 000 to 50 000 region. It shows how popular this competition is becoming. What is even more impressive is the massive growth in broadcast viewership. The URC is one of the two best leagues in the World, the other being the Top14.
7 Go to commentsChristie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
45 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
7 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
45 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
45 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to comments