In the space of two weeks, we have seen two players unlucky to be red-carded another drop an opponent on his neck and only see yellow.
Mathieu Raynal has put away his red card for the season. Glen Jackson doesn’t seem to have brought his to Port Elizabeth.
While the French referee has sent off CJ Stander and Maxime Machenaud in his last two games, the Kiwi only flashed a yellow at South African fullback Willie Le Roux after he left Tiernan O’Halloran in an absolute heap.
The Springboks were reduced to 14 men, but only for 10 minutes, after Jackson asked his Television Match Official for a steer.
Le Roux hared after a steepling garryowen but always looked second best. That did not stop him from competing and his collision with the Irish fullback nearly ended in catastrophe.
Eyes firmly on the ball, O’Halloran was flipped and had no way of halting his crash to the turf. He landed square on the back of his neck but tt he TMO deemed that impact was ‘on the top of his shoulders, top of his back’. Thus, Le Roux was sin-binned and that was that.
Willie Le Roux gets away with a big one pic.twitter.com/zllGNpVI87
— Patrick McCarry (@patmccarry) June 25, 2016
Just like Stander, no dangerous intent but a lack of care for his opponent.
That was just brain dead by Willie le Roux – you surely have to make absolutely sure you don't make contact in the air?!
— Dan Retief (@Retief_Dan) June 25, 2016
Willie Le Roux is lucky there, almost beheaded the bloke
— Keltie (@KeltBomb) June 25, 2016
You’ll never please every rugby fan but there’s no chance of that if the officials call it one week and fudge it the next.
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