Fairplay, very well referee'd Ben Whitehouse

'It's now a pen, you can't say "you're a mug Ben"'

'It's open play I have to stand somewhere'

'Don't complain to me, I am the referee not the groundsman'

With quotes like that he could go far. Not to mention the fact he made his own decisions too.

Sounds like he's been mentored by Owens the way he didn't stop talking the entire game, no one could be in any doubt what he was calling for.
Apart from the commentators that is!
Good performance from an inexperienced ref.

He had a few shockers that hurt both teams but he'll get better with time. Has a lot of potential

Notch, out of interest what shockers were seen from the stands? I heard a lot off booing on the to at times, but generally the red explained them clearly to the players on the pitch.

I know the Nick Williams shoulder charge pen was met with boos, but in fairness the linesman said it was a yellow, and the red decided it was a pen only

Probably not fair to say he had a few shockers on reflection. Probably fairer to day he missed a few things you'd want him to get.

There was a penalty for Ulster after a perfectly fair contest in the air, he missed a Scarlets offside when their kick was charged down which should have been a penalty, he let players several times play the ball from an offside position in the ruck- and the Nick Williams one still confuses me how you can give that as a penalty. The only way you could see that being given as a penalty is if he didn't bind properly in the ruck. He does bind onto the player as he clears him out... it was harsh as he's come in and bound onto the guy in my view.

The Williams one was a strange one as during the first ruck of the 2nd half an Ulster player did exactly the same thing with nothing given, also stupid from the Ulster player given what went before.

The ref missed Herbst going to ground at the scrum a few times leading up to the Pienaar try too

marty2086 wrote:The ref missed Herbst going to ground at the scrum a few times leading up to the Pienaar try too

Harsh to criticise him for that as both Herbst and Phil John were playing silly buggers on that side all night.

The pen was for James Davies calling him a mug for going back to the TMO just to be sure the aerial contest was fair. Personally I thought it was a good call from the ref, even though it was against the Scarlets.

If a kicks charged down then nobody is offside, or at least that's how I've always understood it.


The ick Williams one was borderline, could have gone either way, a bit like the clout that Barclay took on the nose.

Generally good from my POV. Yes he missed a few offsides, and not straights and some scrums but in general he was fairly even handed - he gets a thumbs up.

Notch wrote:

marty2086 wrote:The ref missed Herbst going to ground at the scrum a few times leading up to the Pienaar try too

Harsh to criticise him for that as both Herbst and Phil John were playing silly buggers on that side all night.

On that occasion though as soon as they bind Herbsts knee went down but the ref let them play on

marty2086 wrote:

Notch wrote:

marty2086 wrote:The ref missed Herbst going to ground at the scrum a few times leading up to the Pienaar try too

Harsh to criticise him for that as both Herbst and Phil John were playing silly buggers on that side all night.

On that occasion though as soon as they bind Herbsts knee went down but the ref let them play on

I think he'd got to the point of 'the pitch is churning up, both props are struggling, let's just get this ball out of the scrum and into play'

ScarletSpiderman wrote:The pen was for James Davies calling him a mug for going back to the TMO just to be sure the aerial contest was fair.  Personally I thought it was a good call from the ref, even though it was against the Scarlets. 

Ahhhh, well thats fair enough.

At the very end he called poor Mike Stanley as coming in from the side even though it wasn't a ruck yet...

But yea I think he was very good!

ok, not a scarlets fan but I would be pulling my hair out if I was. They score to make it 25-18, losing bonus in the bag, at 78min47sec on the clock. Why are they letting the time go dead for a kick that simply doesn't matter?? Just drop it quickly, you may nail it, and re-start the game so you can go for the win or draw. Do the players not know the time?

I like this ref. 

Few questions (not his calls but just for clarity).

The Williams penalty- I know why it's given but I don't agree. In fairness he probably had license to be stupid and go YC which he avoided  

The massive forward pass that was ignored but this was a TJ call for me. It was like the pass at the end of the France Ireland 6N decider.

Couple of pens you could probably argue but I think that's twice he has reffed us and I like him. Better than a lot of others

Actually what was the penalty for after the Gilroy aerial challenge. It can't have been for the air contest as it was fine and the spot was way further forward than the incident. Was it backchat or something?

Either way 

Standup, it was for backchat from James Davies

Ah fair enough then. Silly boy

I liked the ref, he was very vocal, made the correct decision most of the time in my view. I particularly like his line about not being the groundsman lol Also I appreciated the pen for the back chat I wish more refs would do it because it would cut it out, used to be anytime anyone other than the captain chatted back that was the result.

I definately liked his reffing style straight out of the Owens book of officiating. Making the call to check with the video ref before firing out a yellow card was something much more experienced refs should take note from.

It's with him that Dragons won at the RDS.

We may have a new gem here.

Could end being better than his Dad !!!

He's already better than his Dad.

Played with him at Uni, a pretty good outside half he was too! Certainly knows the game