Scarlets’ 38-22 victory over Ospreys in the United Rugby Championship has been marred by controversy.
The standard of officiating was widely criticised online, with fans hitting out at the performance of South African referee Griffin Colby on Saturday.
Blair Murray, Vaea Fifita, Joe Roberts, Eddie James and Taine Plumtree all crossed the whitewash for the Scarlets, who were also awarded a penalty try to seal the win with Ioan Lloyd adding three conversions.
The Ospreys pounced on early Scarlets errors with Morgan Morris and Iestyn Hopkins grabbing five-pointers but paid a heavy price for their two yellow cards before half-time.
Dan Edwards scored a late try to make the scoreboard look more respectable in what was a passionate display from both outfits.
Crazy scenes
In an incredibly rare occurrence, the Ospreys were penalised for failure to remove a player following a yellow card. This occurred in the 33rd minute when referee Colby awarded the Scarlets a penalty and issued a yellow card to scrum-half Kieran Hardy.
However, Hardy failed to leave the pitch with his captain Jac Morgan arguing with the referee before Dan Edwards restarted with the kick-off.
At the next stoppage of play, TMO Marius van der Westhuizen alerted the referee that Hardy had not left the pitch with Colby ordering the confused Welshman to leave the pitch before giving the Scarlets a penalty.
That was one of the most notable hiccups during the match but fans were certainly left disappointed by the officiating on the whole.
“Great performance from the Scarlets, but can we all agree that we never want to see that ref again? Woeful,” one fan wrote.
Another added: “I am a neutral, and this is some of the poorest refereeing I have ever seen. How is this guy in the URC to officiate.”
@CardiffRugbyLife felt that Ospreys didn’t fire a shot in the match and hailed Scarlets for their comeback.
“Fair play to the Scarlets bouncing back after quite possibly the worst opening 10 minutes in the history of the sport. Ospreys probably disappointed with some elements of the refereeing but didn’t really fire a shot and lacked jackal threats in defence,” they wrote.
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Lineups
Scarlets: 15 Blair Murray, 14 Macs Page, 13 Joe Roberts, 12 Eddie James, 11 Ellis Mee, 10 Ioan Lloyd, 9 Gareth Davies, 8 Taine Plumtree, 7 Josh Macleod (c), 6 Vaea Fifita, 5 Sam Lousi, 4 Alex Craig, 3 Henry Thomas, 2 Marnus van der Merwe, 1 Alec Hepburn
Replacements: 16 Ryan Elias, 17 Sam O’Connor, 18 Sam Wainwright, 19 Jac Price, 20 Jarrod Taylor, 21 Efan Jones, 22 Ioan Nicholas, 23 Dan Davis
Ospreys: 15 Iestyn Hopkins, 14 Luke Morgan, 13 Evardi Boshoff, 12 Owen Williams, 11 Ryan Conbeer, 10 Dan Edwards, 9 Kieran Hardy, 8 Morgan Morris, 7 Jac Morgan (c), 6 Tristan Davies, 5 Adam Beard, 4 James Ratti, 3 Ben Warren, 2 George McGuigan, 1 Gareth Thomas
Replacements: 16 Dewi Lake, 17 Steffan Thomas, 18 Tom Botha, 19 Rhys Davies, 20 Morgan Morse, 21 Luke Davies, 22 Phil Cokanasiga, 23 Max Nagy
Venue: Parc Y Scarlets, Llanelli
Kick-off: 15.00 IRE & UK / 16.00 ITA / 17.00 SA
Referee: Griffin Colby (South Africa)
Assistant referees: Craig Evans (Wales), Ellis Poulden (Wales)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/incredibly-rare-hiccup-during-welsh-derby-leaves-fans-fuming-by-referee-mare
