Wasps v Harlequins post match thoughts.

[will311293]

It is going to be interesting over the next period watching the non-international referees coping. I assume some of the younger influx will be seen.

I would like see Sara Cox in charge of some of them.

Agree with that! It's been an odd season already in relation to COVID and teams are using it to blood youngsters so why not refs. Let's show why Rugby is a diverse and multicultural sport for everyone.

[DGP Wasp]

Pearce missed lots of stuff. He didn't referee the breakdown at all, missed knocks even when told about them (told Quins player to "be careful"), allowed one of the most ridiculous line out throws I've seen and generally missed people off feet, in at the side, offside and tackling high. He was a shambles and needs to be pulled up about it. He wasn't the reason we lost, but he was awful.

The one that got me was when Marchant caught the ball outside the 22, was tackled inside, and at the next breakdown he called "Inside obviously", when it was anything but obvious.  A small mistake in the grand scheme of things, but the fact that he felt the need to tell Care it was obviously inside compounded it.  I also thought Care was held up for his try and was given too long to get the ball down, but that one is open to debate/interpretation.

However, as others have mentioned, Pearce is not the reason why we lost, but when things aren't going your way...

[JonnyD]

If a player is tackled inside the 22 though the ball is now ‘inside the 22’ doesn’t matter if he brought it back originally, A new phase resets it, that would only be an issue in open play. Was unsure when Healey questioned this in the game

[13thWarrior]

I thought what happened in that passage was Quins recycled it, Dombrandt took it up and deliberately stopped running to stay within the 22m. Then the new phase was within the 22m so they could kick it out. The "obviously" comment was due to Dombrandt's clear attempt to stay inside the 22 rather than carry as far as possible.