fivepointer wrote: ↑Wed Apr 19, 2023 8:35 am
Players openly criticising refs is a bad look that the game has to take action on. those in the game know this and have a responsibility to act with restraint.
My issue is why Nowell alone is being singled out when others have been critical too.
The law could be tweaked to allow players to go off their feet in an attempt top stop a try being scored. I dont think what Woodburn did was at all unreasonable or dangerous so making it formally permissable seems a perfectly rational step.
Have other players been as direct in their criticism, in the sense they are clearly criticising Dickson?
I saw the clip back for the millionth time and actually felt it looked a more reasonable penalty (thus yellow, thus red) decision. If that was a close game and a match winning 80th minute try is prevented by a player diving off their feet on to a tackled player it would seem like a legitimate complaint. Would it have occurred to Leicester/Ashton or any of us though? I'm not sure.
I watched the rugby pod clip where they discuss it and showed a related clip where Esterhuizen was tap tackled before the line, another player then dived on him, on the floor, and he knocked the ball on. I remember watching and just thinking he was unlucky, I didn't even consider it being a penalty, yet I am routinely infuriated by players not being allowed to get up when sliding to recover a loose ball.
I wonder to those urging consistency if this rule was consistently enforced now how it would be received.