Heineken Cup stats

And that touch-line moment

There is a new King of Europe and he wears the triple crown of Munster. But what an intense affair in Millennium Stadium with the roof closed.

It was a match splendidly refereed, for those who watch referees, a great example to all referees.

Here we give some statistics from the match and will little point of law.

Tries

Biarritz: 2
Munster: 1

Penalties conceded

Biarritz: 11
Munster: 7

Reasons for the Penalties
* = points scored by opponents

Biarritz:

Tackle: 5 (Betsen* 2, Traille*, Olibeau, Johnson*)
Off-side: 3 (August, Olibeau, Yachvili)
Discipline: 3 (Harinordoquy -  late tackle; Lièvremont* - collapsing maul; Betsen - collapsing maul)

Munster:

Tackle/ruck: 2 (O'Connell, Wallace)
Scrum: 1 (Horan*)
Off-side: 1 (Hayes*)
Discipline: 3 (Leamy* 2 - air tackle, high tackle; Foley* collapsing maul)

Line-outs thrown-into

Biarritz: 16 (3 lost, 1 penalty)
Munster: 24 (2 lost, 1 quick)

Scrums:

Biarritz: 8 (2 reset)
Munster: 9 (3 reset, 1 penalty)

Free Kicks:

Biarritz: 0
Munster: 0

Drop-outs:

Biarritz: 1
Munster: 1

Stoppages: 82

Kicks made

Biarritz: 36
Munster: 42

Two little points of law.

1. In-out left-right

On the left Philippe Bidabé of Biarritz breaks past John Kelly of Munster and passes to his left to Sereli Bobo. Bobo takes six steps down the touch-line and goes over in the corner.

Like a scientist peering into a magnifying glass, the touch judge watches his progress and then tells the referee that Bobo had stayed in the field of play and had not gone into touch.

The slow motion replay, which had not been available to the scrutinising touch judge, suggested that Bobo's steps were as follows:

left - right - left - right - left - out

The first two are clearly infield. The third one (left) is dicey. It looks as if a sliver of the front of his boot nicks the line. The fourth step is clearly out as his right heel comes down on the line. The last two are alright.

The commentator remarks that there could be no reference to the television match official in such a case.

Right?

The commentator was right.

IRB's protocol on the use of the TMO says:

Area of Adjudication
The area of adjudication is limited to play that involves the correct grounding of the ball on or over the goal-line, i.e.

• Correct grounding of the ball for try and touch-down
• Ball/touch-in-goal/dead-ball during the act of grounding the ball.

For clarity, this will include a player a referee believes may have stepped into touch or hit the corner flag in the act of grounding the ball.   It would not include an infringement that might have occurred in a movement prior to the act of endeavouring to ground the ball.

Bobo was still two strides from grounding the ball when his heel hit the line.

2. You have crossed the line, sir

Biarritz are to drop out. Nicolas Brusque throws the ball up to Dimitri Yachvili, the Biarritz scrum-half. He, left-footed, drops out but Peter Stringer, the Munster scrum-half, charges the kick down. In doing so he crosses the 22-metre line and is over the line as Yachvili kicks the ball.

Sanction?

It used to be kick again, but this year the law changed as follows:

Law 13.17 THE OPPOSING TEAM

(a) The opposing team must not charge over the 22-metre line before the ball is kicked.

Penalty: Free Kick at the place of infringement.

3. An example of bias

A reader wrote in soon after the match, accusing the referee of all sorts of bias  in favour of Munster. He says that he has several example of this bias and cites one:

Reader: Rarely have I witnessed such biased refereeing as seen in today's match! Either white is an incompetent or he was working to a different agenda.

It started with the kick-off a blatant knock-on by Munster and the a Munster player being at the very least 2 metres off side tackled the Biarritz player in an offside position. Should have been a penalty straight away!

Des Egan

Comment: Let's look at the incident.

Biarritz kick-off and do so high and short into midfield. Shaun Payne of Munster runs forward to get to the ball and knocks it on a long way. Damien Traille of Biarritz grabs the ball and Marcus Horan of Munster, who was in front of Payne when he knocked on, tackles Traille.

The referee has his arm out to play advantage. Biarritz get the ball back from the tackle/ruck and move to their right.

First of all the referee did not ignore the incident but played advantage. A referee is obliged by law to allow advantage. He is required by law not to blow "straightaway".

Secondly, there are various ways that a player can be off-side - at a scrum, line-out, ruck or maul kick - none of which apply here. Then there is off-side in what is called general play, which is the case here. This would include a kick, which is not the case here.

Thirdly, the case of off-side after a knock-on:

Law 11.7 OFF-SIDE AFTER A KNOCK-ON

When a player knocks-on and an off-side team-mate next plays the ball, the off-side player is liable to penalty if playing the ball prevented an opponent from gaining possession.

Penalty: Penalty Kikc

Horan did not play the ball. He tackled Traille. The referee allowed advantage. If Biarritz had not got what he considered to be advantage he would have stopped play and, in all probability, had a scrum for Payne's knock-on.

It would seem that this is not a good example of bias.