Three high tackles, Three entirely different outcomes

[opfazonk]

good vid greiffel!

i thinkg much of it comes down to unlucky timing and bad technique...

for example, does anyone remeber the tackle ma'a nonu put on young james o'connor during a super 14 match? (i think it was on RD) it was really one of the biggest tackles i've seen so far and perfectly legal!
but the point is that nonu hit him just with one arm, straigth on the chest. if o'connor had in any way tried to avoid or even duck under the tackler nonu would have literally broken his neck. straight red i guess... it's a thin line
and the problem with refs seems to be that some say, the player had no intentions of ripping his opponents head of and thus it's a penalty at most and others say (and that's the way it should be handled in my oppinion) no matter if it was intentional it still was high and dangerous and therefor must be given a straight yellow...
and of course beefing around after the match seems to be the main factor for citings nowadays...

[Rugbydump]

Yep, no doubt a lot of it is down to referee interpretation, but I was hinting more at the disciplinary hearings being a shambles, as well as the actual rulings, and instructions to referees.

It's good to see that others agree too, for the most part.

Here's the Nonu tackle on James O'Connor btw

[opfazonk]

i totally agree i just didn't want to repeat everything you've already written on the main page

[Peej]

I LOVE that O'Connor hit, almost as much as the Nonu vs Ben Blair one from way back.

I think you're right Greiffel, the citing business is a shambles; it needs to be centralised, and then have a set guideline of standards and graded degrees of punishment. The only thing that would limit this however is, as opfazonk said, that there are different circumstances to all tackles.

I think ALL the punishments handed out retrospectively in these three cases (or lack of in Pietrson's case) are wrong.

Though, seriousness aside for a moment, it must be nice Greiffel to complain about a Bok NOT being cited for once eh? Lol

[Rugbydump]

Yeah it's a shambles. My point was that if that want to be extremely strict, then so be it, but stick to it always. ie: whats normally a penalty is a yellow, or whats normally a yellow is a red. There will be ref's discretion involved though, so it's never a perfect science.

Though, seriousness aside for a moment, it must be nice Greiffel to complain about a Bok NOT being cited for once eh? Lol

For sure, but as I said, if Ireland lost, he'd be suspended by now
It was surprising that after the precedent was set with the Carter suspension, that Pietersen wasn't also docked a week, hence the video/article. I'd have no complaints if he was though, based purely on the Carter ruling.

Three weeks for Fa'afili is unfortunate .

[Peej]

Yeah, that three weeks is terrible, probably even worse than the one week ban Carter or Fourie had. Someone said it in one of the comments on a posted video a while back; Is there an element of what is basically racism in the citing process? i.e. you're a Pacific Islander, you love decapitating people, therefore when you make what may have been a mistake, you actually did it deliberately and deserved to get banned for a long time?

[Rugbydump]

Yeah, that three weeks is terrible, probably even worse than the one week ban Carter or Fourie had. Someone said it in one of the comments on a posted video a while back; Is there an element of what is basically racism in the citing process? i.e. you're a Pacific Islander, you love decapitating people, therefore when you make what may have been a mistake, you actually did it deliberately and deserved to get banned for a long time?

I think calling it racism is a bit extreme, but theres no doubt that a reputation is formed based on past offences. It's a little similar to someone like Bakkies Botha always getting a bad rap and spotted and moaned about whenever he does something overzealous. Any other player doing that for the first time wouldn't get in trouble, but he's formed a reputation of repeat 'offences', so probably only has himself to blame.

Same applies to the Islanders and their chest/head high tackling unfortunately, imo.

Perhaps there is a bit of subconscious discrimination.