Perpignan president complains to ERC over referee in Munster game

Perpignan president François Rivière has written a letter of complaint to the ERC about the performance of English referee Greg Garner during his side's 36-8 defeat to Munster last Sunday.

Rivière told local newspaper L'Indépendant that he had sent a "firm letter of complaint" to the tournament organisers. "I cannot remain inactive in the face of such injustice," said the club president.

“Between the Guitoune try which is denied us, the penalty try and 14 to 4 the penalty count against us, it is my duty to do something. It is not acceptable to let this go.”

During the game France international outhalf Camille Lopez departed from the fray and has been ruled out for six to eight weeks with an ankle ligament injury.

With Welsh playmaker James Hook given time off this week, Italian outhalf Tommy Allan is set to start against Munster on Saturday.

Emulate team-mates
The former Munster scrumhalf Peter Stringer is set to emulate his former teammates Ronan O'Gara (112) and John Hayes (103) in becoming only the third player to make 100 appearances in European competitions when Bath Rugby take on Rugby Mogliano in their Amlin Challenge Cup game at the Recreation Ground on Saturday.

The 98-times capped Irish scrumhalf, who turns 36 today, has played in three Heineken Cup finals, was a replacement in another and picked up two winners medals in 2006 and 2008.

Ironically, his debut was in Perpignan’s Stade Aime Giral with Munster back in 1998.

“It was a tough place to start. I’d never experienced anything like it before. I’d only been playing for a couple of years since coming out of school and I’d been playing local games.

“You’re then thrown into the south of France and a hot bed of rugby and it was quite an eye opening experience. We didn’t win but just to get a sense of playing on that stage, and in an atmosphere like that, was pretty special.

“I remember speaking to a lot of the older guys who were playing that day and had been involved in heavy defeats to Toulouse a couple of years earlier.

“We gave a good account of ourselves and things really started to grow from there. The supporters had travelled with us, and the whole thing seemed to kick off. The players enjoyed it despite the loss and it was a new experience for us.”

On reaching the landmark of 100 appearances in European competitions, Stringer said: “It makes me feel like I’ve been playing the game for a while! Obviously, it’s a nice number to get to, but it’s just a number – that’s really all it is.

"It's really about the memories you have, the players you play with and the experiences you have on the pitch. That's what you take out of it. There's no point having those numbers if you're not successful and not winning things."

Revenge mission
Maxime Medard, one of four Toulouse front-line players given a week's "vacation" last week and is set to return for their revenge mission against Connacht, has said that the intensity in training has hardened this week for what the French winger cum fullback also says is a must-win game in the Sportsground on Saturday.

“I was not there last week, but from what they told me, I see that the tone has hardened this week. This is a special week as we did most of the work by winning at Saracens. So after getting almost zero [against Connacht] we must get a result there [in Galway] this weekend. We’ll see on Saturday, but we know what we did well and poorly.

“We lacked intelligence, we should have managed the game better.”

Medard revealed that Wednesday’s training “was a little more tense than usual, but it is because we are all excited to play this game. We could see on the players’ faces that there was a little tension, because we just made a big blunder last week.”

Regarding the poor weather forecast for the weekend, Medard added: “We’re going there to win. If we win 6-3 or 3-0, who cares? The match is maybe not good, but we must win.”