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#Post#: 106539--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: March 27, 2023, 2:53 am
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1
COMMENT
World Rugby’s proposed red-card law changes make sense – crowds
can sway officials
Governing body has legal and moral duty to reduce risk of head
injuries and taking decisions away from stadium will help get
them right
BRIAN MOORE
27 March 2023 • 7:00am
Brian Moore
Jaco Peyper sends off Freddie Steward - Brian Moore: World
Rugby’s proposed red-card law changes make sense
Jaco Peyper sends off England's Freddie Steward in what has
become a seminal decision for the sport CREDIT: PA/Brian Lawless
“Hard cases make bad law.” You have probably heard this, and
what it means is that a general law is better drafted for
average circumstances, not extreme ones.
After his red card in the recent Ireland-England game, Freddie
Steward probably agrees. The England full-back braced as he
tried not to go through with a tackle on Ireland’s Hugo Keenan,
and his elbow contacted Keenan’s head. Not even ardent Irish
fans accused Steward of deliberately injuring Keenan and the
fact is that this was a combination of circumstances that might
never be replicated.
I thought it was, at worst, a yellow card and referee Jaco
Peyper’s assessment was, to me, flawed but not unarguable and
therefore not wrong. He certainly did not just pluck a card out
of thin air. Steward did have a clear line of sight to the
contact but tried not to make it and Keenan dipped slightly,
trying to gather the ball. I have sympathy for Keenan, who did
nothing wrong either and had to leave the field permanently.
However, the fact that Steward’s red was later reduced to yellow
as he faced the disciplinary panel supports my reading of the
incident.
Steward’s plea of innocence was met with the phrase “in the
current climate”, by which the referee meant the background of
the multi-million-pound, global litigation over concussion.
Those who rushed to claim “The game’s gone soft” and “In my
day...” should be reminded of this fact when they trot out these
wearisome homilies. This issue is one that could potentially
bankrupt the sport and World Rugby must never forget this.
What people cannot overlook is that rugby has a legal and moral
duty to remove or ameliorate reasonably foreseeable risks that
could cause damage and, of those, contact to the head is chief.
The law does not require the removal of all risk, and nobody is
trying to do this, even though that allegation is,
unfortunately, still widely parroted.
Pundits later mentioned a duty of care between players, and they
are right. However, unfortunately for the injured party, that
duty does not extend to never injuring a player, if you have not
done anything wrong. To claim, as was done in the TV studio,
post-incident, that injury means a breach of your duty of care,
is to misunderstand what is at issue. What they, unwittingly,
advocate is a construction of the law that actually creates a
standard of strict liability. Ergo, no matter how it occurred,
if you make contact with a player’s head and he is sufficiently
badly injured, you are to blame. “According to the letter of the
law” is exactly what “hard cases make bad law” is all about and
in this instance, it succinctly encapsulates the confusion over
this case.
World's top referees appear confused
I believe that the unfortunate consequences for Keenan
influenced the official’s application of the law, rather than
the circumstances. That is not uncommon, in fact it is
inevitable given human subjectivity. Keenan was laid out,
therefore it could not just be a rugby incident, even though
such incidents can also have injurious ends.
That one World Rugby source was quoted as saying “I’m not sure
we would have been comfortable doing that [going with a call of
no foul play] because of the emphasis around protecting players’
heads” evidences the claim that this construction is strict
liability. I have no problem if that is what the authorities
want, but such an interpretation should be openly stated and
defended with evidence, and yellow cards would be apposite where
no blame can be made.
It now seems as if the world’s top referees and law makers are
not too clear about this either. This paper on Sunday reported a
mooted change in protocol to allow a TMO to review incidents
during a 10-minute sin-binning for the accused player. If it is
decided that a yellow is sufficient, the player returns. If it
is decided it should be a red, then it becomes permanent. It is
not like the 20-minute red card in the Super Rugby Pacific,
which is just a license to cop out of making difficult
decisions.
Officials should not consider the balance of the game when
making these decisions. Nobody wants to see games effectively
ended as contests, but referees do not want that either,
especially as they know the disgusting abuse they will later
receive from idiots, via social media.
The proposed amendment makes sense. It will provide a period of
reflection for decision-makers who are not in the stadium
hearing boos and chanting of “Off, off, off” – which do
influence referees for reasons that should be obvious to
sensible supporters. If this change is made for the forthcoming
World Cup, World Rugby should make sure it does not make the
same mistakes as the RFU did over tackle law trials – get the
message right, explain it and back it up with cogent reasoning
and facts. If that still is not accepted by some people – ignore
them.
#Post#: 106540--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: March 27, 2023, 2:54 am
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Aha!
#Post#: 106542--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: Quinky
Date: March 27, 2023, 3:54 am
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Interesting that when DC collided with the Sarries fullback -
who seemed down and out but magically got to his feet and played
on with no HIA (Owen syndrome), although he subsequently did
have an HIA - the studio pundits seemed to think it was a yellow
and one even said they thought it was a red. The ref (magically)
gave no card at all. A few minutes later DC did get a card and
the same pundits thought this was to make upfor not carding him
earlier.
From this I have one question: how on earth do these people get
paid for spounting cr*p?
#Post#: 106545--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: T-Bone
Date: March 27, 2023, 4:12 am
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While I thought Pearce missed some fairly obvious stuff at the
weekend, when watching the game back I was pleased to hear him
tell the TMO at one stage that he didn't want to see a slo-mo
reply of the Northmore incident.
The Care and Steward incidents both involved reactions taking
place in a split-second. It therefore can't be right that they
slow them down to frame by frame and then judge accordingly. If
they can't decide if it was foul play in real time, then perhaps
that suggest that the player didn't have time to adjust in real
time either.
I appreciate that if you put yourself in a position where you
are unable to adjust in a split-second then you risk getting
penalised. That's a different point though I think. Have the
replay in real time and ask the question of whether the player
entered the likely contact area in such a way as to leave
themselves unable to adjust as a separate question.
Care was going for a bouncing ball. He wasn't entering a contact
area recklessly. The bounce went against him and he couldn't.
Steward, and Manu when he walloped Tommy against us a few weeks
ago, arguably entered the contact area in such a way that they
were always going to be unable to adjust to any later change
Still think Steward's should have been a yellow at most, and
Manu's should have been a yellow at least
#Post#: 106549--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: JammyGit
Date: March 27, 2023, 6:12 am
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Agreed - Care was a split second away from gathering the ball
himself, and it was a real contest for the ball.
I see Steward's one as more like Manu's in terms of what he's
reacting to and how long he's got (and the distance he
approaches from).
I was very annoyed by Austin Healy claiming the Care incident
was identical to Steward's, and then after viewing replays
claiming it was worse. Shut up, Austin.
#Post#: 106550--------------------------------------------------
Re: Rugby is dead - red card
DIR By: poorfour
Date: March 27, 2023, 6:35 am
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Once again, Brian Moore has hit the nail on the head.
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