AS a rule I am always wary of folk who claim to love a sport but don't support a team.

While it's possible to appreciate great action regardless of the colour of the jersey, I struggle to see how it's possible to immerse yourself into a game without any emotional attachment at all.

It doesn't need to be Premier League or Guinness Pro12 level; there may not be half-and-half scarfs on sale when Croesyceiliog lock horns with Llanwern in Division Two of the Nathaniel Cars Welsh League but their followers care.

It's fair to say that most referees passionately enjoy the sport that they officiating – they certainly didn't become whistlers to gain popularity – and in their past will have had posters of a club's footballers on their wall.

Premier League ref Mark Clattenburg is a big Newcastle fan, therefore cannot referee matches involving the Magpies.

"I have done Newcastle friendly matches, charity matches, and testimonials," he Australian TV last summer, also revealing that Sunderland is off his list because his brother is a season ticket holder at the Mackems.

"I think most people know that I'm a Newcastle fan and so Alan Shearer, for instance, asked me to referee his testimonial match. To have the opportunity to go out on to St James' Park was a boyhood dream."

If Clattenburg was to referee a Newcastle game then I am sure he would do an honest job, referees are trained to do their job and their integrity cannot be questioned despite every club believes X has an agenda against them.

But the Football League make appointments based on geography and allegiance to ensure that thoughts of bias don't even enter the minds of supporters, or at least quell them.

It's about time that the Guinness Pro12 followed suit; their officials may make mistakes but they are always honest errors.

So far this season Newport Gwent Dragons have played 16 games. Remove three Welsh derbies and on six of 13 occasions the referee has either been Welsh or from the country of their opponent.

On each occasion the official has been from the nation of the away side (Ben Whitehouse at Connacht, Ian Davies at Leinster, Dudley Phillips versus Ulster, Gary Conway versus Munster, Nigel Owens at Ulster, David Wilkinson versus Connacht) but nonetheless it is a needless situation that makes life unnecessarily awkward for the whistler.

Their decisions are straight down the line but such appointments play into the hands of conspiracy theorists.

I appreciate that it's a tough task and that more Scottish and Italian referees are needed – along with guests from the Aviva Premiership as Wayne Barnes, David Rose, Andrew Small and Sean Davey have been in the past – because the current Pro12 group is heavily loaded with Irish and Welsh whistlers.

But it's part of the image problem that the Celtic League has when it comes to officiating; it just isn't respected in the same way as the Premiership or Top 14.

Last weekend only added to that problem, starting with events at Rodney Parade on Thursday.

There were two questionable calls with Newport Gwent Dragons profiting from one when Gordon Reid has a try chalked off after being adjudged to have been part of a ruck before rumbling over and then hit by the decision (by the Welsh TMO) to award the winner by Duncan Weir.

They were both marginal calls and there are those who believe the winner was fine, that Josh Strauss' hands went forward before the suspect-looking pass to his fly-half with the benefit of doubt going to the attacking team.

Those events were followed by another high-profile decision in Galway when Ospreys fly-half Sam Davies had a leveller disallowed in what turned out to be a 30-22 loss to Connacht.

Ref George Clancy and TMO Jude Quinn judged that he had been held in a tackle just short of the line before he dived over, thus ruling it a double movement. The Ospreys claim that World Rugby have told them the score should have been allowed to stand.

It was interesting that this occurred at the Sportsground because in September 2014 I was walking back to Galway along College Road when my phone rang. It was Lyn Jones who, after consideration, wanted to add to his post-match comments after Andrew Coombs had been wrongly denied a try in a 16-11 loss.

"There's no TMO, there are no neutral touch judges and it just makes for a lottery. Until we can get that the Pro12 will continue to play second fiddle to the Aviva Premiership," he said.

Then last month there was another game against Connacht without a TMO, this time in Newport. Referee Wilkinson probably got the call right but Rodney Ah You was fortunate that there couldn't be a closer look at his no-arms tackle.

Then there was Edinburgh's loss at the Scarlets when frankly they were robbed of victory by a poor offside decision on the eve of Wales versus Scotland.

The complicated nature of rugby's laws mean that we will frequently feel hard done by but the Pro12 needs to work harder on the image as well as the standard of the refereeing to give a helping hand to their officials.