Barnes to referee key tie for Munster

MUNSTER MAY be less than thrilled to hear that Wayne Barnes will take charge of their critical Heineken Cup Pool One match at home to Perpignan on Friday week.

The English official was particularly harsh on Munster last season at the breakdown in their narrow home win over Montauban and their defeat away to Clermont Auvergne.

The three Irish provinces involved in the Heineken Cup will have English referees for all their six matches in rounds three and four. Chris White will emulate Alan Lewis (61 matches) and Alain Rolland (50) in taking charge of his 50th Cup game when Leinster face the Scarlets on Saturday week, while David Pearson will referee Ulster’s game at home to Stade Français the same day.

The following weekend, Barnes and Pearson will referee Leinster’s home game against the Scarlets and Munster’s trip to Perpignan, while Andrew Small will be in Brussels for the Stade-Ulster return match. Connacht will have French officials in charge for both of their games against Worcester in the Amlin Challenge Cup, Jerome Garcas taking charge of their away game on Saturday week, and Pascal Gauzere refereeing the return game in the Sportsground the following Friday.

Following the ERC’s Match Officials Committee review of rounds one and two of both European competitions, Donal Courtney, ERC’s match officials performance manager, has indicated “referees have been asked to be more vigilant in their refereeing of the scrum and tackle areas as well as paying particular attention to obvious obstructions at kick-offs, mauls and lineouts”. A statement also stated: “In relation to the scrum referees have been asked to pay particular attention to frontrows adhering to the engagement sequence and the correct binding techniques with a view to reducing the current very large number of reset and collapsed scrums.”

Meanwhile, the Ireland Under-19s should be appreciably stronger for their complete make-over from the team beaten 31-14 by the Australian Schools last Friday when renewing acquaintances at the Cork IT this evening (kick-off 7.30). Coach Allen Clarke has cited this game as an “opportunity to benchmark the quality of this year’s group leading into next year’s Under-20 Six Nations and Junior World Championship tournaments”.

IRELAND UNDER-19: (v Australia U-19 Schools, Cork IT, today, 7.30pm): A Conway (Blackrock); T O'Halloran (Galwegians), B Macken (Blackrock), L Marshall (Ballymena), C Hircock (Bedford/Exiles); J McKinney (Queen's University), P Du Toit (UCD); J Tracy (Newbridge College), D Doyle (UCD), M Moore (Lansdowne), S Hanbidge (CBC Cork), D O'Mahony (PBC Cork), J Murphy (Blackrock, capt), A Conneely (Coláiste Iognáid), E McKeon (Coláiste Iognaid). Replacements: L Padian (Worcester /Exiles), P Mullen (King's Hospital), K O'Byrne (UCC), S Leckey (Glasgow Hawks/Exiles), D Gallagher (Trinity College), M Dolan (Marist College), G Quinn McDonagh (Shannon), A Kelly (St Michael's College).