EUROPEAN CUP FINAL COUNTDOWN: Gerry Thornley profiles Joel Jutge, the man in the middle for Saturday's final

One of the ironies of Munster and Leinster providing the dream Heineken Cup final for tournament organisers, is that it probably denied them the best referees in Europe.

The appointment of the excellent Chris White and David McHugh for the semi-finals underlined the prevailing feeling that the best referees in the Northern Hemisphere right now mostly hail from England and Ireland. However, the presence of the leading English and Irish sides in the final automatically ruled them out and it is a commentary on the current standards in Wales and especially Scotland that there was even talk of a Southern Hemisphere referee before France's Joel Jutge was chosen to oversee Saturday's game.

Thus, while Alan Lewis will referee Sunday's Parker Pen Shield final with Alain Rolland and Donal Courtney as touch judges, Jutge will be assisted by Joel Dume and Didier Mene in Cardiff.

Jutge's appointment appears a minor gamble given the 36-year-old has only refereed one Test match thus far, the Wales-Scotland match on the last weekend of the Six Nations, perhaps partly because both Dume and Mene have been struck off the IRB's 26-man panel of elite referees (temporarily at least).

Jutge, like Rolland, is a former scrum-half who took to refereeing after his career was cut short by a knee injury. "He's a good referee," adds Rolland of the French official. "He's got the advantage of having played recently and likes to let the game flow and he's got very good English as well, so he should be able to communicate well. Just as importantly he's got two strong, experienced referees as his wingmen."

Leicester, warns Rolland, will have done their homework on Jutge. "Before I refereed them this season I know they had tapes of my games sent to them. That shows you how professional they are."

It will be surprising if the Munster Brains Trust haven't done likewise, and they'll also have additional inside information from incoming Munster coach Alan Gaffney, given Jutge took charge of the Leicester-Leinster quarter-final. The Tigers, not unreasonably given they've Martin Johnson in their ranks, can tower over referees a little intimidatingly but they won't have any of the familiarity which they enjoy with English referees.

Jutge, pronounced Jooge according to Rolland, is undoubtedly a key man and, in company with most people, Rolland highlights "the tackle and the scrum" as the crunch areas.

The likes of Harlequins' coach John Kingston and other English observers maintain that, true pros that they are, Leicester and Neil Back in particular delay opposition ball by not rolling away in the tackle, and, if given licence, they'll be just as adept at not releasing or not staying on their feet when arriving at the ruck.

But when a team such as Llanelli compete as ferociously at the breakdown and a referee such as McHugh allows the Tigers no liberties, as in the semi-final, they can struggle. Munster aren't exactly shrinking violets themselves, with Alan Quinlan an effective spoiler at the breakdown, while they, too, have their quota of firebrands.

Jutge refereed the breakdown fairly in the Leicester-Leinster quarter-final though, in a pivotal moment, when Leinster led 10-0 after the first quarter, the French referee penalised Brian O'Driscoll for not releasing when trapped on the deck by Back.

Leicester duly opened their account when scoring off a trademark lineout maul from the resultant penalty and to compound the injustice, Lewis Moody was cited by Leinster for alleged stamping on O'Driscoll in the same incident, only for the ERC to exonerate the Leicester back-row at the disciplinary hearing.

It will be a surprise, too, if Leicester don't target the Munster scrum from early on and attempt to drive the Munster front-row skyward. As a rule of thumb, if the scrum pops and Munster have retreated a step or two, then the odds are they popped it under pressure, but if it stays rock steady then Leicester will be the more culpable. But how will Jutge see it?

Like everyone else, Munster have been afforded vastly contrasting treatment by referees in Europe at scrums over the last few years, both when the scrum pops and when opposing loose-heads twist in illegally on John Hayes. How Jutge sets the tone at the first few put-ins will go a long way toward determining the trend of the game on Saturday.