“In the last two seasons, they have lost all nine of those interpros and, significantly, only in one of them did the penalty count go in their favour.
“Two of the games ended with the penalty count level, but the 17-0 defeat to Munster in Musgrave Park was the sixth time in those nine matches that the penalty count went against them.”
The “they” and the “them” in question is, of course, Connacht, and this article was published in The Irish Times on January 8th, 2008. It continued thus:
“That night, the count was 7-1 against Connacht at half-time, and ultimately finished 13-6, while it’s worth pointing out that Connacht were awarded three penalties after the 76th minute, by which stage the score was 17-0.
“By contrast, in the 21 games against non-Irish opposition in the Magners League over the last two seasons, the penalty count has gone in Connacht’s favour over 50 per cent of the time. It’s also worth noting here that interpros are invariably refereed by Irish referees, whereas the games against non-Irish opposition never are.”
On foot of confirmation that the Connacht and Ireland winger Mack Hansen will face a disciplinary hearing this Wednesday in light of comments he made about the officiating of Leinster’s 20-12 win over Connacht in the Aviva last month, it is also worth noting another sentence from that article, almost exactly 17 years ago to the day.
[ Mack Hansen to face disciplinary panel on Wednesday over refereeing commentsOpens in new window ]
“It often takes an outsider of more independent thinking to make the most telling observations, and so it was that Matt Williams, in his time as Leinster coach, came to the conclusion that there was a form of ‘institutionalised racism’ against Connacht within Irish rugby.”
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Of course, by that Williams did not mean there were racists in the IRFU or elsewhere within the sport on this island, more that there was a subconscious bias against the province which had endured pretty much since the foundation of Irish rugby.
For decades at the annual general meeting of the IRFU, six members of the 22-man committee were elected by ballot. It was an open, fair, democratic vote – so long as no Connacht nominee was elected! Two delegates each were nominated from Leinster, Ulster and Munster, and one from Connacht. Except for one hilarious exception, every year the six elected consisted of those two nominations apiece from Leinster, Munster and Ulster.
The only time the agm elected a Connacht delegate was in 1980, when internal politicking saw the usual cosy arrangement fail. Quite why the IRFU fostered such blatant gerrymandering is a moot point, but it tells us much about the attitude of the other three provinces towards Connacht, which was founded in the roots of Irish rugby.
By any criteria, that is an “institutionalised” bias, and even led briefly to the IRFU genuinely considering disbanding Connacht as a professional entity at the turn of 2003.
The observations of the two Australian-born rugby people of Irish extraction are certainly provocative, and are founded in something that feels real. After all, Williams – who coached both Leinster and Ulster – has no axe to grind on Connacht’s behalf.
Granted, Hansen’s choice of language was decidedly ill-advised. Frustrated though he and Connacht may have understandably been over the 9-3 first-half penalty count against them in that loss to Leinster, as ever, analysis of any referee’s performance is subjective, and certainly the penalty count eventually balanced out. Furthermore, Hansen’s comments ran the risk of incurring the wrath of the close-knit refereeing community, while also portraying Connacht as sore losers.
Since beating Ulster in last season’s opening round of URC games, refereed by South African Morné Ferreira, Connacht have lost 10 of their last 11 interpros, and all but one of them have been overseen by Irish referees.
There have been some poor Connacht performances in there, as well as four narrow defeats, and their only complaints about the 17-7 loss at home to Ulster over Christmas was that they didn’t show up for the first quarter and that the visitors brought more desire and energy. They have no one to blame but themselves for that one.
Even so, in the eight interpros before that Aviva meeting with Leinster last month, Connacht had five yellow cards to one by their opponents.
In truth though, Connacht could hardly have any gripes about Shane Jennings’ yellow card for blocking Luke McGrath. Nor was there a compelling case to sinbin Jordie Barrett for making contact with Bundee Aki’s head in that ensuing clear-out. That said, it was surprising that the officials were so swift in dismissing any foul play in that incident, and also the one that led to Josh Ioane being helped off in the 31st minute and not returning.
The province have long since preferred having non-Irish referees in charge of interpro derbies, albeit their grievances over officiating are not confined to Irish refereeing, and rightly so. Some awful endgame officiating by referees from Scotland, Wales, England and France spring to mind which have left Michael Bradley, Pat Lam and Andy Friend absolutely livid. In one heavy beating in Belfast over a decade ago, a non-Irish referee did not award Connacht one solitary penalty in the entire game.
“Yet in general Connacht prefer when they have an overseas referee rather than an Irish one for an interpro derby. One leading Connacht official often felt that for a younger, up-and-coming referee it would be particularly difficult to preside over a Connacht win against one of their provincial rivals. That somehow this went against the natural order of things.” – The Irish Times, October 2021.
Not much seems to have changed.
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