Sir, - The refereeing performances during the current rugby World Cup have come in for much criticism. One of the aspects which your correspondents, among others, have found frustrating has been inconsistency between different referees and on occasion inconsistent decisions in the one match.
John O'Sullivan (Sports, November 1st) described Jim Fleming's performance in the France v New Zealand semi-final as "little short of a disgrace" and cited an 11-2 first-half penalty count in New Zealand's favour as evidence of this. Gerry Thornley on the same page (reckoning the count as 13-2) felt "it was hard to fault the vast majority of Fleming's decisions, the French paying scant regard to the rucking laws".
As different reporters (particularly impartial ones, as in this case) can have contradictory views, perhaps we should not be surprised that referees may also not be perfect. - Yours, etc.,
Colm McGuire, Lansdowne Park, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.