[2018-19 Guinness Pro 14] Round 3 (14, 15 & 16/09/2018)

[TeuzTV86]

Sorry but the red and yellow cards were fully deserved. You can't forearm smash a playing to the head when he's lying on his back in a ruck. Very lucky it was a glancing shot, or it could have been a very serious injury.

A few years ago the yellow would have only been a penalty, but there's been a concerted push from world rugby to reduce collisions with the head, and this simply followed that trend.

Benneton still played fantastically well, huge credit to them. They would have been in with a very good chance of winning but for the cards, but that ain't the ref's fault!

I don't agree: there were no intentions for benetton's player to hit the opponent player's head lying down on the field. It was a normal rucking phase....

About the yellow card: an high tackle, but the impact was under the attccker's shoulders.

And don't forget that there was another dangerous foul made from the Scarlets, but no yellow cards shown in that case.....

And thinking at the second match in treviso, against cardiff, we saw a penalty try for the blues, at the first foul in scrum from Treviso, but at the final minutes, several fouls in scrum from Cardiff (5 times) and no penalty tries conceded by the referee....

 

[General Melchett]

What do Scarlets fans think of Blade Thomson so far this season? Seems like he has Scottish grandparents and has claimed to have been thinking about the possibility of playing for Scotland.

 

[dullonien]

What do Scarlets fans think of Blade Thomson so far this season? Seems like he has Scottish grandparents and has claimed to have been thinking about the possibility of playing for Scotland.

Signing of the season so far. Really dynamic player, especially ball in hand. Should only get better as well.

 

[Thingimubob]

I don't agree: there were no intentions for benetton's player to hit the opponent player's head lying down on the field. It was a normal rucking phase....

About the yellow card: an high tackle, but the impact was under the attccker's shoulders.

And don't forget that there was another dangerous foul made from the Scarlets, but no yellow cards shown in that case.....

And thinking at the second match in treviso, against cardiff, we saw a penalty try for the blues, at the first foul in scrum from Treviso, but at the final minutes, several fouls in scrum from Cardiff (5 times) and no penalty tries conceded by the referee....

Intentional or not, he flew in off his feet with no arms and smashed Lee in the face with his forearm. That's a red card all day long, especially considering how strict World Rugby want refs to be with these kinds of incidents.

As for the yellow, as Dull said it would've been just a penalty in days gone by, but his shoulder makes contact with McNicholl's head first, which under the new guidance refs have to punish. Harsh as McNicholl was in the process of ducking a bit, but the rules are there to look after the players, so the refs need to be consistent.

I do however agree with you that the Scarlets were very lucky not to pick up at least one yellow themselves - Balls shoulder charge into the ruck was just plain daft, and likely only wasn't penalized further because he didn't make contact with the Treviso player's head. Prydie was very lucky not to be yellow carded (S4C commentators were baffled that he wasn't) when he took the player in the air out as well.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

It feels strange to say after only one win this week, but was that the best ever weekend for Italian clubs? It wasn't like Scarlets and Blues had massively weak sides out and both Italian clubs seem to have greater fitness, steel and execution than before. The Benetton performance looked little short of heroic.

I didn't think they'd progress over last season as it's just the same players, but three weeks and already I'll be amazed if the two clubs don't beat their combined points total for the season despite improvements in the Kings and (possibly) Dragons.

Feet on the ground for Zebre. It won't always be 23 degrees, dry and calm but finally the international players are getting invaluable experience week in, week out. There must be strides in the national side.