With less than an hour to go to the kick-off of the crunch group D Rugby World Cup match between Ireland and France in Paris, my heart tells me that Ireland will storm to an historic win, but my head tells me otherwise.

Specifically, I have serious concerns about the colour of the Ireland away strip, which is grey! Grey! Who is the idiot that decided on that colour? Grey is not a suitable colour for playing an agressive sport like Rugby, or indeed for playing any competitive sport. My wife, who is a colour analyst, tells me that grey is a relaxing colour and good for when you want to boost mental activity, but no way is it suitable for playing a competitive team sport.

Manchester United used grey as their away strip some years ago and suffered a disastrous run of results while wearing the strip. As soon as they changed from grey, they got back on winning ways.

The bad form shown by this excellent Irish team could well be due to choosing the wrong colour for their strip. I’m praying that this is not the case, but if Ireland lose tonight, I think the blame should be bourne by whoever is/are the dimwit/s who decided on grey as the colour.

Now I’m not a fan of the Premier League, or even a convinced soccer fan, but I do watch the occasional chunk of Champions League or UEFA Cup. So tonight I tuned into the Sevilla vs. Tottenham Hotspur UEFA clash partly because there was nothing else that remotely interested me on the other three channels we currently have (our satellite is still out of commission 3 months after requesting Urlan to fix it, but more of that anon), and partly because I have a certain interest in seeing both sides for different reasons.

The fact that Robbie Keane is playing tonight (as captain) makes it interesting in itself - it intrigues me how he can be so prolific a scorer for Spurs while missing the simplest chances for the Republic of Ireland. The fact that I lived seven years of my life in Seville makes it even more interesting. Specifically, I supported the other Seville team - Real Betis - because I couldn’t stand the smug self-righteous superior attitude of the sevillistas (Sevilla F.C. supporters). In fact, I gloried in every defeat of Sevilla F.C. as much as in every Real Betis win (Viva er Betis manque pierda!), and mourned every Real Betis defeat (and no, I was not so far gone as to mourn every Sevilla F.C. victory! - fútbol is, after all, a game!).

So you can imagine how happy that 2nd minute goal by one R. Keane tonight made me! Toma! But, after 20 minutes or so, things started going awry for the English team when the Luxemburgish referee made the most unbelievably bad decision of giving a penalty to the home side when clearly it wasn’t a penalty. Not only that but he yellow-carded the Spurs goalkeeper for protesting! Then, in a blatant display of home refereeing, the Luxemburger went on to give frees to the homeside at every opportunity - so much so, I’m wondering how substantial were the contents of the brown (or whatever colour they currently use in that part of the world) envelope he got, if he got one.

I know if I was a Spurs fan I’d be pretty pissed off with the referee! But I’m not, so, in the interest of staying in good humour, I switched the channel.

In fact I’m seriously thinking of boycotting all sporting events, given the raft of blatantly bias decisions by referees and, much more seriously, fourth officials in recent weeks. I refer to the “try” that was awarded to France in the last seconds of their match against Scotland by the TV Official when it was obvious nobody could see the ball being grounded. Now, the rules of Rugby state that a try cannot be given unless the ball can be seen to be legally grounded. The TV official in question haled from Ulster - why the heck couldn’t he have said NO on this occasion when NO was the right option. Better say no more on that!

I also refer to the “try” just on the stroke of half-time by Llanelli against Munster in the Heineken Cup last weekend. The guy who “scored” the “try” clearly made a second movement to ground the ball which makes it not a try. Yet the TV Official gave the “try”. Then there was the first “try” awarded to Biarritz in last year’s Heineken Cup final against Munster, when the “scorer” clearly put his foot several inches in touch on his way to the line. I could go on and on!

Now, you tell me - what the &*%¢#k is the point of having TV Officials when they so blatantly ignore the rules?

At times, it is difficult for referees as they have to make a decision there and then, and don’t always see everything that goes on. For that reason, the referee has umpires to be his eyes - unfortunately these umpires sometimes turn out to be either visually challenged, or turn a blind eye (dare I suggest brown envelopes?). But, it is absolutely inexcusable for a TV Official to make a wrong decision given that he has television footage from all sorts of angles and time to make a decision. So, for that reason I say to the Ulster TV Official at the France-Scotland match, and the TV Official at the Llanelli-Munster match - you’re either bloody cowards or you’re on the take - either way you don’t deserve any respect, so thanks a bunch for nothing.

Therefore, I for one will no longer bother to watch any sport of any kind with anything but indifference. What’s the point when greed, cheating and hypocrisy win out so often?

It was very very disappointing to see France score that last minute try in Croke Park against Ireland today to steal a scarcely deserved 3 point victory.

I must say that the standard of refereeing from Steve Walshe was pretty poor as he was plainly biased towards the team in blue. In the first half when he was playing advantage to France and no advantage accrued to them he quite rightly gave them penalties. In the second half when Ireland were in the same position and no advantage accrued to them, he did not on two occasions give them penalties. Which to my mind is unfair bias. The referee is supposed to referee the game without fear or favour to both teams. Walshe clearly favoured France today. His bias was most spectaculary shown in his failure to give Marcus Horan a penalty in the second half when he was illegally held back while following up on his kick forward towards the French try line, and in the first half when, with advantage being to Ireland, Geordan Murphy broke the French line and raced all of 60m to the try line only for Walshe to disallow it. So much for Kiwi fair play! It’s about as fair as the infamous spear tackle on Brian O’Driscoll in NZ by another Kiwi on the last Lions Tour.
To my mind, Walshe has brought the game of Rugby into disrepute, first by his slurs on Ireland’s performance in Wales last week, and now by his despicable refereeing in Croke Park today. He should be fined heavily for what he has done (as a player would be), and never be given another international match to referee.

That said, Ireland have only themselves to blame for losing, as they did not function in the first half and were very lucky to be trailing by only 2 points at the break. This is not the first time Ireland have failed to start against France either - last year they gave the French a 40 point lead before getting their act together.
You simply cannot afford not to start against France and hope to win.

It was with a certain amount of sadness and a lot of disappointment that I saw Munster’s unmatched Heineken Cup home record finally broken by Leicester at Thomond Park on Saturday. The fact that it was the last game to ever be played in Thomond Park before it is demolished to make way for its redevelopment makes it doubly upsetting.

But records are there to be broken.