Rookie referee accused of being ‘absolutely desperate’ in ‘one of the worst displays seen in 40 years’
Peter Martin on referee duty in Saturday night's Munster versus Leinster match
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’s Munster versus Leinster match in the United Rugby Championship.
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.
Even Leinster coach Leo Cullen added to the narrative, suggesting that his team weren’t 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’s nine.
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.
“Dart arts…”
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.
Writing on LinkedIn at the time in a post accompanied by a picture where the framed memento he received from the IRFU was in his bin, Busby said: “Today 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.
“A gesture, I suppose. But what I really needed – and never received – from IRFU leadership was genuine support during the most difficult period of my professional life. I’ll be sharing more about that in the months ahead. For now, I’m grateful for the people I’ve met through the game, and looking forward to what’s next.”
Hopefully, that alleged lack of genuine support won’t be repeated for Martin, who was savagely booed off the field in Limerick by Munster fans when he departed down the tunnel with his assistant referees after blowing for full-time in Leinster’s 13-8 win.
The referee only made his EPCR debut earlier this year, taking charge of last January’s 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’s Irish derby was a step up in levels and his involvement wasn’t popularly received.
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Alleging “dark arts” 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. “They 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.
“I thought we had good ascendancy in the scrum, maybe didn’t 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’t quite nail home some of the advantages we had in the game.”
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’s performance. Under the highlights footage from the Round Eight match that has been viewed 84,500 times on the URC’s official YouTube channel, a comment that said: “Absolutely disgraceful performance from the ref killed the game” was liked by more than 100 people.
Some of the other 170-plus comments included: “Painful 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’ve seen in 40 years… he destroyed what should have been a great game.”
Rather than have referees travel overseas for this year’s 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.
With Munster versus Leinster requiring a referee not from those provinces, it was decided to appoint Ulster’s Martin and it will be interesting to track the qualified accountant’s progress in 2026 after the criticism he has now received.
Martin had been an assistant referee when the rival Irish teams previously met in Dublin 10 weeks earlier, providing touchline support to Italian referee Gianluca Gnecchi.
When Munster previously hosted Leinster in Limerick in December 2024, though, Scottish ref Sam Grove-White was flown in for the match.
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