The man everyone was talking about after Leinster’s big win was the man in the middle, Romain Poite.
Leinster scored a huge 18-8 away win at Exeter Chiefs in their Champions Cup pool C clash on Sunday evening. Johnny Sexton and Jack Conan’s tries coupled with some fine kicking from Isa Nacewa were enough to see the Blues score a memorable win.
In the opening minutes, it looked like lady luck wasn’t going to look upon Leinster favourably with some huge calls from referee Romain Poite going against them.
Luke McGrath had an early try disallowed when Sexton was ruled to have a foot in touch while making an offload leading up to it. Poite went to the TMO, who confirmed that Sexton’s foot had made contact with the touchline.
"Such a tight decision, the advantage has to go to the attacking side…"
Despite what @andNickMullins thinks, Romain Poite rules out an early Leinster try at Sandy Park… ❌ pic.twitter.com/xz4I3eUI7J
— Rugby on TNT Sports (@rugbyontnt) December 10, 2017
Only a few moments later, Devin Toner had a try ruled out. The issue surrounding this incident was whether or not the big man had successfully grounded the ball.
Poite went to the TMO, who wanted to award the try. He asked if he saw any grounding and the TMO confirmed that he did not see any, so Poite awarded a scrum five.
For the second disallowed try, the referee was technically correct but looking at the replays, it seemed very likely that Toner grounded the ball. It all came down to the question that was being asked by Poite.
