We Wuz Robbed!!!

GLASGOW WARRIORS had enough territory and possession to have won with a bonus point, in Belfast on Saturday night. They were the better team for most of the game, but, they made too-many mistakes and lost. That said, Ulster's best player was Referee Adam Jones, who showed himself a complete “Homer” by the way he favoured the home team.

It is difficult enough to beat 15 Ulstermen in Belfast, I would say it is bloody impossible when you are effectively playing 16 men. Aside from the referee effect, I see World Rugby's efforts to kill all the game stands for continued. We know you no longer have to put the ball in straight at the scrums. It now appears you don't have to throw it in straight at the lines out either.

But, for me Mr Jones' two biggest blunders was his repeated refusal to penalise Ulster when they held Glasgow players into the breakdown. Three times, I clearly heard him tell the home team they were doing this; but, did he penalise them? Did he hell.

Then, at the end, the winning Ulster try – that was as blatant a crawl over the line as I have seen, a clear double movement. But, by then, I am convinced the Welshman had money on an Ulster win, We wuz robbed!!!

I FOLLOWED UP events in Belfast with the Argentine v South Africa game. From the Bokke's fast start, I feared they would blow their hosts away, but back came Los Pumas to grab the lead.

The second half was a ding dong affair and in the end it came down to Mannie Libbok missing a late potentially match-winning penalty. Poor Mannie, he is establishing something of a pattern around missing crucial kicks. Most of South Africa will be absolutely certain Handre Pollard would have nailed that late penalty. But, in truth the better team on the night triumphed.

So the possibility of the World Champions adding the Rugby Championship to their list of victories has to wait another week, until the return match in South Africa. I would not be rushing to write-off these Pumas just yet.

It was a gladiatorial contest, as was the earlier match in Sydney, between Australia and the All Blacks, another one in which one side's (New Zealand's) blistering start appeared to have the game won, before the opposition came back, but, in this case, the ABs recovered to get over the line.

It was a long day of rugby-watching for me, I had also watched Samoa v USA and Japan v Fiji in the Pacific Nations Cup. Can I jut say, that young Fijian fly half, Caleb Muntz, is one helluva player, while another youngster Ponepati Loganimasi, just up from their Sevens squad, also looks like one to be feared.

I DID not devote my entire Saturday to Rugby Union. I took some time out to reinforce my belief that this current Rangers team is unworthy of the name. When you have swathes of unoccupied seats directly behind the goal at the Copland Road End of Ibrox, then you know your team is in trouble. The Bears are staying away in droves.

I was, however, multi-tasking while watching Rangers v Dundee. I was simultaneously attempting to catch-up with the afternoon's events in the Arnold Clark Premiership. By 5.15pm, the BBC Shortbread online results service had every Premiership result up, once again, the SRU website failed to meet their 6pm deadline for having all the results up.

OK, I've banged this drum before, and I've been told by dedicated and well-known Clubmen that it's down to the clubs not living up to their part of the bargain and having the results in in-time. I still say, if Ron Evans could do it, why cannot the grossly-over-manned SRU Comms Department do it?

But, there is a problem out there in clubland. Some clubs are very good at using their twitter (now X) feeds to keep those members who cannot get to a game up to speed, but others clubs are still, I fear, somewhere in the late Victorian era when it comes to getting their messages out there.

If your club is in the Premiership, you, as club officials, really need to be pro-active on social media, streaming score flashes and so forth. You are running sports businesses which need to attact supporters and keep them aware of what is happening.

Having week-old messages as your latest X flashes will not cut it. Not posting score flashes when you are getting thumped isn't a good look either.

I HAVE TO SAY, the Premiership is unfolding much as I thought it would, with Ayr, Heriot's and Watsonians, the three richest teams in Super Rugby, pulling clear at the top, Musselburgh losing touch a bit at the foot and the other eight teams hurting each other since they are so-close in terms of talent.

Kudos to Glasgow Hawks for leading the chasing pack, I do have a soft spot for the guys at Balgray, there are some first-class Rugby Men in that club.

Mark Cairns' belief that his side's poor start to the season was a temporary blip appears to have been born-out by their home win over Hawick on Saturday, I expect to see them now start to climb the table.

JUST IN CASE Buddy and The Elves in the Comms Department think I am going soft on them, I note, at 8am on Sunday, more than 12 hours after the result was up on the BBC website, and even later than its appearance on the Borders Rugby Radio and TV's results service, the outcome of the Dundee v Gala game (Gala won 27-17) in National 1, still isn't up on the SRU website. They got shot of John Jeffrey for less!!

The big result in that division on Saturday was surely GHA beating Stirling County 60-22 in their top of the table clash at Braidholm. That GHSA, with home advantage, won it, cannot go down as a shock, but the margin of victory certainly has raised a few eyebrows.