Shaun agrees, refs need French

I GOT some stick in a reader’s letter after I expressed my surprise that Nigel Owens had never tried to use a few words of their language when refereeing French sides.

It was therefore interesting to hear Shaun Edwards, now working with the French national side, say that it would have been nice if Irish referee Andrew Brace had made an effort to communicate in their own language with his players during the Autumn Nations Cup final.

Edwards made the point that a player under extreme pressure, listening to the ref, might be marginally disadvantaged if he has to translate what is said in English into his own language – French refs make the effort when speaking to players whose first language is English, and there would be a major fuss if they just stuck to their own mother tongue and hoped the home nations players understood them!