It’s unlikely to have altered the result, but here’s what happened.
Just as the hour mark approached, Ronan Kelleher prepared a lineout throw. Leinster were ahead of Bath, just, 26-21.
The throw was not one of Kelleher’s best, and perhaps the timing of the lift on RG Snyman wasn’t perfect either. Maybe a bit of both, but for whatever the reason the ball sailed over the top. It hit the French referee, Luc Ramos, who failed to react quickly enough to get out of the way.
The decision was a fortuitous scrum to Leinster, particularly given that they’d messed up. Conversely, it would turn out to be a very unlucky chain of events for Bath, they’d done nothing wrong. Jamison Gibson-Park fed the consequent scrum which went to ground pretty smartly. Bath’s loosehead Beno Obano was penalised and yellow carded.
Following his earlier high hit on Gibson-Park, it was his second yellow. The colour changed to red, and Bath were down to 14 men. They would not score again.
Looseheads have a tendency to put illegal pressure on their opponents by driving across the scrum into the neck of their opposite number. To do so, they will turn their hips/backside outwards and their left leg will be in front of their right one. But at this scrum it appeared that Obano tried to stay straight, which wasn’t surprising since he had just been warned.
It looked much more like the Leinster tighthead, Rabah Slimani, had got inside Obano and was shoving at an angle, into the Bath hooker. It was impossible for Obano to resist the action of the Leinster prop, and, inevitably, he folded inward, and the scrum collapsed.
My take on this much discussed red card is that the referee’s call was incorrect. But since the referee had caused the scrum, quicker thinking would have seen him reset it, and work to get a positive outcome, rather than a penalty. Irrespective of the warning.
Let’s go back to the throw. Kelleher always seems to stand infield with his heels just about on the touchline behind him. The law, logically, requires the thrower to have “both feet outside the field of play.” It’s something the hooker could usefully sort out before he is pulled up for it mid-match; that might be unsettling.
Over the weekend there were crooked throws which went unpunished, and not because of the law trial. Throwers were inclined to move off the line of touch, and throw the ball straight, but down their own line of players, which qualifies as crooked. The assistant referees didn’t do much assisting, all they had to do was to insist that the thrower stands on the correct mark. That’s not too tricky a task.
Munster came away from Northampton with two hard fought bonus points, but they’ll be disappointed not to have carved out a win. The physicality levels were impossibly high, and aggression was on a knife edge. There was always the possibility that it might slip into uncontrolled territory.
It might well have, if referee Nika Amashukeli had not taken full ownership of neck rolls, and one potentially very dangerous tackle. He whistled without a split second’s delay whenever it looked like players might take matters into their own hands.
If there’s a better referee on the planet right now, I haven’t noticed. His work rate and movement around the breakdown are first rate, and need to be copied by all referees – too many are happy to remain positioned perilously close to the action.
Hollie Davidson performed confidently in Ulster’s win over Exeter. However, her positioning puts her in serious danger of being steamrollered. We all remember it happening to Mathieu Raynal, a double fracture of his leg, both tibia and fibula, and a broken collar bone. All because he stayed too close.
Next, more on the Chris Busby affair. I had no intention of returning so quickly to this matter, but there was an interesting development during the week. Mark Simpson, on the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, requested an interview. I was pleased to do it, and we talked about the issues raised here in last week’s column.
Simpson also asked the IRFU if they would like to say anything and a right of reply was offered. The response was to send a statement, which was read out on air.
Here it is: “We would like to clarify that the matter surrounding Mack Hansen’s comments and subsequent actions was handled by the United Rugby Championship (URC), not the IRFU. The IRFU fully respects the decision that was reached after a URC disciplinary hearing and has no further comment on the process. The URC, as the relevant competition body, is responsible for managing such issues, and the Union trusts their handling of the situation.”
If you’re wondering where to find even one word in support of Busby, wonder no more, there isn’t one. It was a missed opportunity, and it’s incomprehensible that visible, public support is nowhere to be seen. Compare it with how World Rugby dealt strongly with Rassie Erasmus. Sorry, my mistake, there is no comparison.
Instead, this bland statement is all that the IRFU can manage to offer. It’s nothing more than a well lathered hand-washing exercise, a terribly poor reflection on the governing body. There is no honour in how this has been handled.
There are some good, true rugby men serving on the union committee, I cannot imagine that they are happy about it. But, neither does an omertà like silence do anything to help.
