Owen Doyle: Mathieu Raynal’s calm demeanour contributed to a great occasion at Croke Park

French referee’s officiating at the scrum in Leinster’s win over Northampton an example which his peers would do well to emulateMathieu Raynal: his steadiness and composure, from the off, allowed the match at Croke Park to breathe, letting play develop, only intruding when necessary. Photograph: James Crombie/InphoWhen, as planned, Mathieu Raynal hangs up his whistle after the summer internationals, I dare say that he will have a few regrets. It goes with the job.

Where I found the referee to be impressive was at scrum time. Not for him the continuous resets and the endless chatting which too many referees seem anxious to inflict on us. They have the opportunity to talk to the front rows before the match, so there’s no reason whatsoever to repeat it all over again on the pitch.

A team of Irish officials, led by Andy Brace, headed to southwest France for the second semi-final, Toulouse v Harlequins, and found themselves involved in a cracker. Then there was Joe Marler’s extraordinarily stupid slap to the head of Tomas Ramos. Marler, for all his scrummaging attributes, still has the propensity to pull things like this out of his bag of tricks. No problem for Brace to rightly reverse the penalty already awarded to Quins. The prop paid the correct price for his belligerent behaviour, as did his team.

Champions-Cup Leinster-Rugby Antoine-Dupont

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