Official West Hartlepool RFC

el pedro, great story and informative, sounds like quite an entertaining game, albeit not for the game of rugby.
what happened to Aaron??? was it the result of last week's two sin bins that he could not play or something completely different, like Falcons stopping him play????

Wasn't there some funny business too with an assault on the Boro scrum half that went unpunished?

Middlebrough deserved to win on the day, so I'm not making any excuses in making the following comments; however it does concern me that the game played in difficult conditions was a hindered by a referee who allowed considerable latitude in his interpretation of numerous situations. In comparison to the referee at Sheffield last week, who had no problem brandishing the yellow card for offside at breakdowns, yesterdays official appeared to have no concept of this as an option. This undoubtedly causes frustrations for players and as a consequence the game appeared to have been simmering for some time before the mass brawl at the end. A top of the table clash is always going to be a fast & physical game and it is disappointing that an official is appointed who genuinely seemed to be struggling to make decisive decisions when called upon. We have seen referees who are far better equipped to deal with a match of this sort over the past couple of seasons, so it is disappointing that an official couldn't have been allocated who was better able to handle the requirements.
I appreciate that refereeng, particularly without the assistance of touch judges is very difficult, but I think yesterdays game was most memorable for the wrong reasons ie. the frustrations caused to the players and spectators

Sounds Like you are trying to blame the ref for the mass brawl, in these leagues you have to play to the referee, teams who adapt tend to win if the players can't need to learn

Funny how when West lose what soundes like a pretty awful game someone is on here the day after blaming the ref.

I fail to see how refereeing decisions, however bad is justification for a player running to get involved in a brawl.

A very poor game played out in poor conditions by two sides capable of much more. We need to put this one to bed and move on.

Mixie, the ref's performance was poor but no one involved in the game on West's side will blame him for the defeat or the brawl, which incidentally began with a challenge on Jon Boatman when he was not in control of the ball. This resulted in a bad end to a bad game.

The above two posts from Rovers people do not warrant a response.

Slob fancy going down to twickenham next week looks like Nicky can't make it, i have too many tickets now.

Mixie,

If you can't fill the slot for your ticket I think Robok is looking for some tickets and is happy to pay for them.

... but Robok, you are English
I will accept your South African status if you get me some more biltong

Whatever the cirumstances surrounding the brawl, one thunderous punch was landed by Anth Carr which shouldn't have gone unnoticed, and a Boro lock needed 6 stitches after a cheap shot during the first half. West are gaining a reputation as cowardly cheap shot merchants when the game doesn't go their way.

Just pointing out that last year when Westoe played Boro in North 1. Their was quite a big punch up near the touch line (opposite side to the stand) and a spectator was on the pitch throwing punches! I wonder if this could be the same person as at the weekend?? Even if its not this bloke should be removed from the ground and told not to come back!

There should be no place in rugby for spectators joining in from the sideline. If a brawl or whatever goes on the pitch, it is the Ref's place to control things. Who ever this was should be removed from rugby totally.
This type of thing has to be nipped in the bud and stopped before it escalates and spoils the rugby atmosphere.

Unfortunately, west lost this match by not being able to convert pressure into points. Our forwards did really well, but while boro's backs finished off their opportunities, our backs were far from clinical. We looked short of ideas behind the scrum

I think it should be pointed out that Saturday's Ref only received the appointment at Noon becuase of problems with the appointed official. Originally we were to get a ref from Lakeland, then Mr Fitzmaurice was supposed to be the ref. Not sure what happened but I do know Saturday's official was diverted from anothe game.
On the day Boro deserved to win. They had that biut of extra power and experience.
However, if we had come away with 7 points when we spent ten minutes on their line in the secoind half things might have been different!

Sounds like it was a tough afternoon. Do you have any idea who the spectator was who went onto the pitch? If such info is classified then that's perfectly understandable.

is it not known who the joining in spectator is at west should boro not be contated to try and find the identity of this spectator. This individual should be banned for life from both clubs. what goes on the pitch stays amongst the 30 players on the pitch. (as long as no one has been sin binned or sent off). Other people you always see getting involved in fracas is the replacements, they also should be disciplined accordingley they are not involved on the pitch at that time they should stay clear.

Agree with the comments made re: fans on the pitch. No matter what punches are being thrown the last thing anyone needs are fans running on.
That said I don't think this guy actually did anything....but that's not the point he should not be on there.

No idea who he was....had a bright red coat on. Assume he was from Boro as hadn't seen him before but if he was a Westie then hope he doesn't come back.


On a lighter note DP managed to video SCH at the game :-)