Premiership Rugby 22/23 - Rd 13

[Welsh Exile]

"The panel require the player to give a presentation to a local club or school, and to a premiership academy, on the core values of the game"

I'm not sure they've thought this bit through.

 

[Which Tyler]

Strong words, but...
I'm not sure suspending 2/3 of the sentence backs that up - especially for a player with previous for this.

 

[Crash Hamster]

I'm with Danny Care on this; what are the standards going to be on verbals? Will "Please sir, he said a hurty word to me!" now be enough for a citing?

I'm not defending Marler (whom I love to bits, but half the fun in him is knowing how close he sails to the wind) but was he miles over the threshold for citing? Only just at it? Please can someone define the line? I suspect they can't.

 

[Scotty]

What did Marler actually say? Exact words.

What was the context?

And did he have prior knowledge of Heenan's personal issues?

On another point what do you lot think of players saying comments to get a reactions to get their team an edge or get in a players head?

 

[Which Tyler]

What did Marler actually say? Exact words.

Given that the words are ban-worthy said in the heat of battle on a rugby pitch - how well do you think the mod.s here would take to them being repeated?

I've seen what he is supposed to have said, but A] it's supposition, and B] it would certainly get me banned if I repeated them.

Suffice to say that it was sexually explicit about Heenan's mother, when said mother was in hospital at the time. Above and beyond a "yo momma" "joke" IMO.
I don't know if Marler knew that last bit.

Players sledge to get an edge, any edge; whether a distraction for half a second, or to get fists flying and cards handed out doesn't really matter - any reaction at all is a win.

 

[Crash Hamster]

What did Marler actually say? Exact words.

What was the context?

And did he have prior knowledge of Heenan's personal issues?

On another point what do you lot think of players saying comments to get a reactions to get their team an edge or get in a players head?

'pparently.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

Yeh there is "banter" and calling someone's mums a ____

Kinda clear line and don't know what care is smoking

 

[Which Tyler]

Yeh there is "banter" and calling someone's mums a ____

Kinda clear line and don't know what care is smoking

Third time for the same offence as well (conduct prejudicial to the interests...)
Following racial abuse (£10k fine) & sexual assault (10 weeks suspended)

Either, he doesn't know where the line is, to stop him crossing it; or the punishments so far have been too minimal to actually affect him, and a price worth paying for the edge he thinks it gives him.

 

[BrokenWing]

Bit odd that the referee was the ONLY person who didn't hear that, whilst being stood next to Marler.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Bit odd that the referee was the ONLY person who didn't hear that, whilst being stood next to Marler.

Almost as if they were team mates for 8yrs...

TBF I don't think Dickson is bias towards Quins, he's equally as....erratic....towards every side

 

[BrokenWing]

Oh, I noticed some odd decisions for both teams the other day.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

If that video above is accurate, that goes beyond sledging IMO. In my view sledging is having some snipes at the player themselves and is not some catch-all defence to allow you to say everything under the sun to another player. Marler was messing about to begin with but that last bit was him just being a twat.

 

[Welsh Exile]

I was going to say at the time you need to know not only what was said but what's also very important is how/the tone in which things are said. After hearing that both what he said and how he said it (with a maliciousness) was definitely way past the line.

 

[Scotty]

'pparently.

Ok thats actually quite bad, very harsh and direct comment. A ban and fine is fair.

Im very much for banter and even slight digs to get under a players skin, its part of the game but that was just a dick comment.

 

[LeinsterMan (NotTigsMan)]

 

[Welsh Exile]

Good that he's thrown Dickson under the bus. After listening to that audio Dickson must've clearly heard it but did nothing. He should be suspended as well to be honest and very worrying considering his Quins links.

 

[RedruthRFC]

Goo

Good that he's thrown Dickson under the bus. After listening to that audio Dickson must've clearly heard it but did nothing. He should be suspended as well to be honest and very worrying considering his Quins links.

Good for him and good to the panel for not whitewashing it to save his blushes. In a rugby context, I'm a big fan of the adage about doing the things that require no talent, dealing with this is the refereeing equivalent. If Dickson can hear what was said and not realise that it's unacceptable and requires a sanction, then what hope does he have of dealing with complex decisions in real-time?

 

[Pieter Steph du Teague]

Dickson just shouldn't be alllwed to ref Quins tbh. It's pretty mad that he is. Hopefully this is enough to make that change.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Dickson just shouldn't be alllwed to ref Quins tbh. It's pretty mad that he is. Hopefully this is enough to make that change.

If he is genuinely biased towards Quins then there's an argument to be made he shouldn't be allowed to ref any games. I know that sounds harsh and I'm not saying it's a position I hold but it's a worrying trait to have in a ref to be honest.

 

[Not Mike Brown's Sock]

Agree that Dickson reffing quins is odd, but all that Heenan has done there is justify himself starting a scrap really.

"He looked at me" isn't really justification for all the abuse Dickson has got over the past few days honestly.

Reading the full docu, it is especially interesting that Marler basically confirms that he says what he said quite a lot as an easy trigger, and that the panel essentially accepts that as not really serious abuse, thus avoiding the need to sanction any future "sledging" of the same note.

Really, if Heenan's mum isn't unwell, nobody cares and it's just mind games. I've heard a hell of a lot worse on the pitch, and whilst it's not nice to be picked up on the mic, I'm not sure many who have played at any level could really say they've not seen / heard anything similar go unpunished.

As a sport, rugby is so so marginal, and if you start banning people for all of it, I'm not sure what you're left with. When you have 8 6ft+ 120kg giants fronting up, a huge part of deciding victory is going to be in the grey of the laws - Id rather that be words than gouging, stamping etc.

Marler is 100% not in the right here, but neither is the rampant abuse of Karl. I've reffed a fair few games and I don't think I've really ever listened to the **** that players come out with at scrums tbh so I'm inclined to believe he just wasn't zoned in to listening what he was saying.

Honestly, the precedent it sets here is - don't chat **** in distance of a mic - rather than anything else tbh.