Phenominal effort by the welsh

[rgs]

I did not see game live but watched the highlights and in my view Rolland got the decision right. Rolland is a former irish international and suggesting he is bias towards france is totally wrong. Rolland sent Fritz off playing for Toulouse in the Heineken Cup for a similar tackle.
Interestingly David Wallace and Shane Horgan had different views on the sending off. Wallac felt it was a red card whereas Horgan felt it was only a yellow. Two other tackles of a similar nature earlier in the tournament were dealt with by citings and both players given three week suspensions.

 

[User20205]

Might not quite be the consensus you were expecting:

I stand corrected .... I'll just have to dig out a copy of the Welsh Mail

I'm not suprised at Ackford, he's never been the same since Mendez knocked him out.

The comments below the article cast some doubt on whether it's as cut and dried as you think. Apparently if the player dumps his oppo to the ground with no regard for his safety then it's a red. I'm not sure this was the case.

Anyway we may have to agree to disagree, I just hope that refereeing doesn't decide tomorrow's game & the final.

 

[Basher]

I thought Jones played well as did Jones. Also worthy of a mention was Jones, Evans, Jones, Owen and Jones. Have seen Jones play better but Thomas and Jones made up for his shortcomings. After todays performance I can see the likes of Jones. Jones, Thomas, Jones and Jones making the next Lions team.

 

[Naybrains]

Gotta say guys, I know very little about rugby but............ that was pure theatre this morning.
Absolutely enthralling stuff, the Welsh done there country proud.

Total Warriors*




*and a bit mental though, you wouldnt put yourself through that would you

 

[HRC99]

I stand corrected .... I'll just have to dig out a copy of the Welsh Mail

I'm not suprised at Ackford, he's never been the same since Mendez knocked him out.

That was still the best punch I've ever seen on a rugby pitch. Ackford walking off like Bambi on ice having been decked by a schoolboy.

The comments below the article cast some doubt on whether it's as cut and dried as you think. Apparently if the player dumps his oppo to the ground with no regard for his safety then it's a red. I'm not sure this was the case.

Regard for safety just isn't in the law. I think it's clear that Rolland applied the letter of the law, the arguments are more whether he should have done so.

Anyway we may have to agree to disagree, I just hope that refereeing doesn't decide tomorrow's game & the final.

Amen to that. But it's also down to the players not to put themselves and their team in those positions. I bet the Aussies and ABs are all being told in no uncertain terms not to copy Warburton!

Anyway, come on you Aussies!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Not a huge follower of rugby so not that clued up on the rules but having seen it at normal speed it did seem reckless at best and dangerous at worse. I guess the ref did make the correct call and for my two penneth the only issue would seem to be the timing of the sending off, coming as early as it did. Still we've seen it in football where refs have done the same thing and got slated for not taking a more lenient view and spoiling it as a spectacle but surely the rules or laws of any sport are there to be adhered to from first to last and we can't have officials backing off in case the public don't get a good game.

In the end the Welsh still had enough chances to win and didn't take them. To me they've been the best team in the tournament and its a shmae they went out in the way they did but I hope France get stuffed next week

 

[Aztecs27]

Red card or not, James Hook needed to actually be a bit successful in the kicking game and they still would have won.

If anyone's to blame, it should be him. Or jones for not converting the kick after the try.

 

[sev112]

What not many people are spotting was that in this case Clerc landed on his head and neck bent 90 degrees and i woudl hazard a guess that had something to do why thyis one was a red and others (where players have landed safely) may not have been

i dont think it was deliberate, but the consequences of this one raised the severity of this instance, and therefore possibly the sentence.

i also read , prob on the bbc website, that the refs had been specifically spoken to to address this particualr issue (apparently)

 

[welshjim22]

been l;ooking at spear tackles on youtube and this was certainly not as serious as most i have come across. To be fair if you tackle a player coming at you a certain % must end up on their back. It is how they do it that matters. Was it reckless and intentional or just accidental. On this occassion it was more of the accidental than intentional lets hurt someone on purpose tackle. After all why would he have done it. Wales were clearly the best team and to have 60% possesion and territory with a man less is further proof of their dominance. Many will question the ref. The rules say start with red and work backwards he didn't work backwards, this tackle should have been a yellow. Furthermore the ref's father is French and so he IS half French and should not have been the ref for this game. Was he biased who knows, if he wasn't he should have taken time to deliberate with others before so quickly making his decision.

Sadly one of the worst performing big teams has got through to the final denying not only Wales but the rugby world as a whole of a well fought final between the best two teams to date in the tournament.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

HRC, You say Sam Warburton can complain all he likes cause he made the tackle, However ive heard no complaints from anyone in the Welsh camp they have all been totally professional in there approach and the way they have conducted themselves has been fantastic,for one i am really proud of what we achieved, roll on 4 years time....

 

[thegogg]

Just seen this post and feel compelled to post.

I'm a Welshman , I played the game for 25 years , I've been a WRU referee for the past 10 years. We lost the match but it wasn't down to the referee's decision but because quite simply France scored more points than us. Hook should have kicked his penalties and Jones should have tried for the drop goal when he had the chance but what a team and what a performance!

I'm so proud of the way we played, the effort the boys put in, the professionalism of the management and coaching staff and the way they've conducted themselves as true ambassadors for both the sport and the country. WELL DONE BOYS WE’RE SO PROUD OF YOU.

HRC – You quite correctly quote law 10. 4. J but you fail to add – Sanction – Penalty Kick. There is nothing within the law that states it must be a red card, it is down to the referees interpretations and I for one thought it was a terrible call. Yellow card at worse. A precedence has now been set that every time a player if taken off his feet in the tackle and not placed down again then it must be a red card. Ridiculous.

Am I bitter – NO
Am I disappointed – HELL YES along with most other true rugby fans including Francois Pienaar, Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Williams.

 

[USER1999]

As is often the case in rugby, the better team won. Roll on the final. Come on the blacks.

 

[sev112]

This is not a debate about "spear" tackles, it is about lifting people in tackles so that they land on their neck and their heads.

O'Driscoll's receipt of a 2 man spear tackle was the biggets travesty of justice.

i soooooooooo wanted wales to win, but if you flip a player in a tackle the rules now say you have a responsibility to bring him down safely. If Clerc lands on his neck/head bent 90 degrees then this is a SERIOUSLY dangerous tackle, whether it was meant or not.

The journalists have blown this up. (Pienaar, Dallaglio are paid to ramp up the emotion, not to talk rationally. ) One paper today was suggesting that the reason was because Clerck weighs 16kgs less than Warburton, as if somehow it was either Clerc's fault for being light, or that Warburton should be given consideration because he had no otion given it was a small chap he tackled.

I'm really sorry, but i dont think we shoudl be making key refereeing decisions on the basis that it would make the game a better one to watch . What woudl happen in golf if the referees could just ignore rules and penalities ... "don't worry about that 2 shot penalty Tiger, you didn't mean to move the ball, just take a one-shot penalty there"


As i said earlier also, the wales players have not mentioned the ref at all - well done to them again. Come back stronger next time. The can be proud of their world cup.


P.S. I do wish everyone would stop slagging France off - what do you want them to do, not turn up ? Good luck to them in the final - they have done nothing wrong. If teams shoudlnt win world cups after losing 2 games, then it should be a different set up, but it isn't and never has been. For a start they could get rid of that stupid Bonus Point system, which was ostensibly to help smaller teams, but in fact has hindered them, i.e. Tonga could have gone through because they actually beat France but lost out on bonus points.