Champions Cup 15/16 - SF1 (Saracens vs Wasps)

[JJFlash]

Wasn't Romain Poite going to give a penalty against Itoje before the kick occurred?

 

[ratsapprentice]

There are a whole bunch of sneaky tactics that are commonplace, those are just two of many and for the most part are rarely punished.

Utter horse****. What Ashton did is neither a tactic or commonplace. It's simply ****ing dim.

Wasn't Romain Poite going to give a penalty against Itoje before the kick occurred?

Didn't know it had happened until the TMO intervened, AFAIK.

 

[Tony Manx]

Utter horse****. What Ashton did is neither a tactic or commonplace. It's simply ****ing dim.Didn't know it had happened until the TMO intervened, AFAIK.

Correct on both counts!

 

[Raggs]

Was Ashtons collar grab on Wade legal? Always thought that wasn't allowed.

 

[johnmac99]

Was Ashtons collar grab on Wade legal? Always thought that wasn't allowed.

It should constitute a dangerous tackle as Ashton has no control over where or how Wade will land during or after the tackle. Using the collar in that way meant the tackle was made above the line of his shoulders.

So it should have been a penalty under Law 10.4 (e).

IMO Ashton gets away with far too much in a game and he always tries to gain an advantage through gamesmanship and actions that push the line of foul play. Someone is going to sort him out one day and if he goes to Australia and plays for England, it could well happen over there.

IMO The man is a nob of the highest order.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Definitely feeling pretty salty following this one.

I'm particularly peeved about Itoje's role in the penalty try - which is to say he went down very easily indeed. It looked a lot like a dive.
And also obviously the Mcintyre incident.

Sarracens probably still deserved to win on balance for the way they just starved us, and they were streetwise

 

[Every Time Ref]

Utter horse****. What Ashton did is neither a tactic or commonplace. It's simply ****ing dim.

What did Ashton do? I don't remember an Ashton incident?

Regards the Itoje/McIntyre incident - I get what you're saying about self-policing, and I agree that sneaky bull**** like Itoje got away with (we all know the "penalty" Poite gave against would never have been given without the kick by McIntyre) is far too common. I would love to find a way to cut it down, because it's ridiculous how commonplace it has become - but turning a blind eye to players kicking each other in the head is not an acceptable solution. I'd rather see players held in to rucks than vigilante justice being meted out.

Could the TMO's duties be expanded to that kind of thing? Watching rucks in real time, if he thinks he spots something he can watch it back and communicate back to the ref on the field within a couple of phases. It's far from perfect and wouldn't catch everything, but catching even 50% would at least make it some kind of a risk and make players think twice - at the moment it is effectively zero risk, as no-one EVER gets penalised.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Kicking players in the head is definitely not ok for sure, but in reality it was little more than a clip from soneone who was off balance trying to find their feet. I'm aware that the rule book makes no such distinctions between a full kick and my idea of a 'clip' but I find it a bit inconsistent that players fighting and shoving and judo throwing off the ball is disregaded but the moment youy make any direct contact via foot or hand it's an entirely different matter often seeing a card.

Personally I don't like the whole thing of penalties reversed because of discipline etc. I know this case was different because Poite hadn't spotted Itoje's offence, but in general I support the idea of, if deemed necessary, punishing retaliation with a card - but letting the original penalty stand (if there is one).
Otherwise you just regularly end up with situations where the infringing team is not punished at all. In fact that they probably know that they can and will do it again in future providing they are able to make the opponent retaliate and reverse the penalty!

 

[Every Time Ref]

Kicking players in the head is definitely not ok for sure, but in reality it was little more than a clip from soneone who was off balance trying to find their feet. I'm aware that the rule book makes no such distinctions between a full kick and my idea of a 'clip' but I find it a bit inconsistent that players fighting and shoving and judo throwing off the ball is disregaded but the moment youy make any direct contact via foot or hand it's an entirely different matter often seeing a card.

Personally I don't like the whole thing of penalties reversed because of discipline etc. I know this case was different because Poite hadn't spotted Itoje's offence, but in general I support the idea of, if deemed necessary, punishing retaliation with a card - but letting the original penalty stand (if there is one).
Otherwise you just regularly end up with situations where the infringing team is not punished at all. In fact that they probably know that they can and will do it again in future providing they are able to make the opponent retaliate and reverse the penalty!

Yeah to be clear I was talking about the general principal of self-policing, not this particular incident.

In this case I would say "kick", while technically accurate, is a very strong word for what was basically a pat on the head using his bootlaces - although I disagree he was trying to find his feet, it did look intentional to me. Yellow was harsh, although understand erring on the side of caution a bit given concussion concerns.