RateTheRef

Bit more recently than a few weeks ago - it was last Saturday, so just 2 weeks between visits to the Etihad for Madley.  Hope it goes well for him though. 

Good to see Gillett appears to be more in favour than he was - 4 appointments to the middle in the last 5 rounds.

Robinson with his first VAR on his own

He was actually one of 5 SG2 referees appointed to the VAR panel when it was first introduced, so he actually did VAR on his own during it's first season of use.

No complaints about Dalot red card, you simply cannot react like that even if the initial call is wrong.  However, Nunez sarcastically clapping after getting a yellow card should have seen the same sanction applied, but didn't - lack of consistency from Michael today.

Fantastic spot for the handball by Havertz.  Think he's generally been very, very good all night - don't think any of the booked players can have any complaints. 

Only thing puzzling me is why he's not getting more fixtures - 3rd vs 1st/2nd and he's handled it very well.

On similar lines, Ben O'Keeffe put up a post on social media about abuse he received during the RWC and the stats are really alarming.  I admire any official that feels like they can have a public profile - and there are a number of rugby officials who do, but unfortunately, as with other sports like football, they just get bombarded with threats and abuse when their decisions go against a country.  Social media sites really do need to be stricter on abuse and trolling.

It's great to see Chris finally be recognised with the big matches his performances have deserved, and even better to see him perform well in the big matches - I was impressed yesterday.  Hopefully, he will stay injury-free, because I still think he's got the potential to be up there with Taylor and Oliver.

Lewis Smith appears to be following Sam Barrott's path towards the top flight - 2 SG1 assistants and a PL team in his fixture.