Christmas is traditionally a time for kindness, but there was no love lost in some of the withering criticism of referee Peter Martin following his handling of Saturday night\u2019s Munster versus Leinster match in the United Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n
His display in a fixture that Leinster won 13-8 in Limerick was so divisive that fans of both teams were left grumbling about the influence wielded by the Ulster official.<\/p>\n
Even Leinster coach Leo Cullen<\/a> added to the narrative, suggesting that his team weren\u2019t sufficiently rewarded in the first half for the dominance they demonstrated at the scrum in a low-frills contest where the overall penalty count finished with the visitors conceding 13 to Munster\u2019s nine.<\/p>\n Martin is essentially a rookie at professional level, having only stepped into the IRFU high-performance panel around the same time that his fellow Ulsterman, Chris Busby, was making a hasty exit.<\/p>\n \u201cDart arts\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n So upset was Busby with what he felt was a lack of support from the Irish referees group that he retired last summer, just seven months after a high-profile incident involving Connacht and Ireland player Mack Hansen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Writing on LinkedIn at the time<\/a> in a post accompanied by a picture where the framed memento he received from the IRFU was in his bin, Busby said: \u201cToday marks the end of my time with the Irish Rugby Football Union. I was given a framed photo as a memento to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n \u201cA gesture, I suppose. But what I really needed \u2013 and never received \u2013 from IRFU leadership was genuine support during the most difficult period of my professional life. I\u2019ll be sharing more about that in the months ahead. For now, I\u2019m grateful for the people I\u2019ve met through the game, and looking forward to what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopefully, that alleged lack of genuine support won\u2019t be repeated for Martin, who was savagely booed off the field in Limerick by Munster<\/a> fans when he departed down the tunnel with his assistant referees after blowing for full-time in Leinster\u2019s 13-8 win.<\/p>\n The referee only made his EPCR debut earlier this year, taking charge of last January\u2019s Toyota Cheetahs versus Zebre Parma Challenge Cup match. He was also selected for maiden HSBC SVNS and World Rugby Junior Championship duties, but this weekend\u2019s Irish derby was a step up in levels and his involvement wasn\u2019t popularly received.<\/p>\n Leinster boss highlights \u2018it is what it is\u2019 IRFU regulation dictating his team selection as Sam Prendergast omission addressed<\/a><\/p>\n Alleging \u201cdark arts\u201d in his post-game TV interview, Leinster boss Cullen referenced how his team also conceded way more penalties when beaten 31-14 by Munster at Croke Park in October. \u201cThey gave away 15 penalties during the game; we gave away seven. So they were pushing the boundaries the whole time, just making life very difficult for us. It was probably a little bit the same today.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought we had good ascendancy in the scrum, maybe didn\u2019t get the full reward I thought during parts of the first half, the referee making us play out when we were are clearly advancing forward. So little things like that where we just can\u2019t quite nail home some of the advantages we had in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Munster boss Clayton McMillan did not refer to the standard of officiating in his post-game TV chat, but social media came alive with cutting verdicts on Martin\u2019s performance. Under the highlights footage from the Round Eight match that has been viewed 84,500 times on the URC\u2019s official YouTube channel<\/a>, a comment that said: \u201cAbsolutely disgraceful performance from the ref killed the game\u201d was liked by more than 100 people.<\/p>\n Munster v Leinster: Five takeaways as Jacques Nienaber\u2019s defence \u2018evolves\u2019 amid \u2018fire and brimstone\u2019 derby<\/a><\/p>\n Some of the other 170-plus comments included: \u201cPainful to watch. Ref was a complete joke; He should never be let ref again; That ref was absolutely desperate; Referee ruined the game; As a Leinster fan that was at the game, that was one of the worst ref displays I\u2019ve seen in 40 years\u2026 he destroyed what should have been a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n Rather than have referees travel overseas for this year\u2019s post-Christmas round of matches, URC administrators decided to appoint same-country-of-origin refs for the matches. This meant that the two Irish derbies had Irish refs, the two Welsh derbies had Welsh refs, the Scottish derby had a Scottish ref and the Italian derby an Italian ref.<\/p>\n