If either of these scores had have been allowed to stand, Munster may have staged a great European escape.
The Irish province lost their Champions Cup semi-final 27-22 to Racing on Sunday with substitute hooker Rhys Marshall’s disallowed try chalked off after he had used referee JP Doyle to shield his way to the line, while Simon Zebo’s pass to a galloping Robin Copeland was brought back after it was deemed to have drifted forward.
Former Munster centre James Downey joined The Hard Yards and discussed both of the decisions, as well as just why Munster fell short.
Downey commented on Zebo’s pass:
“Robin Copeland was running a good bit away from him and to get that pass is an extremely difficult skill. To give it more zip, to give it more power, you can see Simon Zebo pull backwards just to get like a tennis shot I guess. A kind of forehand into it.
“He pulls away from the line to cut across it and he pulls back. His hands go across and it just looks worse. It looks like he pulls out of it and it looks forward straight away when it leaves his hands.
“I’d like to see it again because I didn’t actually focus on it too long. We’re clutching at a couple of things at what could have been.”
There was only one TV replay shown of the incident but further inspection would suggest the pass did indeed drift forward.
Credit: Direct 2Earlier in the half, replacement hooker Rhys Marshall also had a try ruled out. On this occasion, Doyle felt the Kiwi had made a beeline for him and used him as a tackle buffer.
Downey believes that was the correct call from the officials too. He said:
“He used him as a buffer. Completely. I thought JP Doyle had a funny comment going ‘well played, you used me as a buffer’. You can’t use that. It was cute, it was smart and maybe on another day with a not as reliant or aware referee you could get away with it but you have to come back from that to be honest.”
