[RUGBYLIST] The man in the middle

[mario.diani a fastwebnet.it]

Sempre su Mr Courtney, ecco cosa scrive il Daily Telegraph

But the most significant reaction came from Donal Courtney, the Irish 
referee. Courtney was the video official who wrongly awarded Jonny 
Wilkinson a try in the Calcutta Cup match at Twickenham and he seemed 
to believe that he had much to atone for. The Italians have a habit of 
beefing about referees, but on this occasion they would have been more 
than justified.

Courtney's first contribution to the cause was to run a screen that 
allowed Dewey to score Scotland's opening try. But he had much more to 
give than that. Three times in the first half Italy had a magnificent 
driving maul going and each time a Scottish forward cynically took 
their legs away. Courtney merely looked the other way. But the first 
time Italy did something remotely similar he was straight out with the 
whistle. It was indicative of a ridiculously one-sided penalty count.

At one point it even threatened to cost Italy the game. When Chris 
Paterson split a couple of Italian forwards to score in the second half 
Scotland had reduced their deficit to 24-17 and were in with a sniff. 
But Alessandro Troncon, who is the real leader of this Italian side, 
reorganised his forwards and, after another Cusiter error, directed 
their power to shut out the game.

Scusate ma l'effetto delle libagioni di questa notte e' troppo forte 
per tentare una traduzione. Saluti da una livida - ma per noi radiosa - 
alba edimburghese. 

Ciao, MD