[2025 Six Nations] France vs Scotland - 15/3/25

[Leonormous Boozer]

Only really catching up on this. Did the citing mention that it should have been a full red card as it was off the ball and not in the course of playing or anything along those lines?

If not, I think it's a massive error. Refs will continue to shirk responsibility for engagements like this. Once Carley treated is as a tackle and brought in the framework it was only ever going to be an in game yellow.

 

[BrokenWing]

Simple solution is give the bunker the option for the three

 

[Which Tyler]

Simple solution is give the bunker the option for the three

Yeah, it's really weird that the bunker has to be limited to the ref's first thoughts when the whole point is that it doesn't need to go beyond first thoughts.
Refer the incident to the bunker, and let the bunker sort it out.

 

[Saintjay]

Can't a ref just say also check for any foul play?

 

[Reiser99]

Can't a ref just say also check for any foul play?

The issue is that the bunker shouldn't have to because for 'foul play that warrants a straight red' (technically head contact is also foul play) it's either a red or nothing. There is no in between. For head contact there are varying degrees of offence that could be a YC or could be a RC.

The bunker is supposed to save time for head contact where there are lots things to consider, such as impact, amount of force, any mitigation etc... and it wastes time for the ref to do it live.

Say a player punched another player the ref wouldn't say, it meets the YC threshold, I'll send it to the bunker. It would be a clear red and sent off straight away.

WRU probably didn't anticipate that a ref would send a situation where a player has headbutted another player to the bunker because in reality it should just have been a straight red. The mistake was completely Carley's and the bunker was asked to review something it shouldn't have. Why make the game more complicated by asking the bunker to also review if something is worthy of an automatic red.

Let's take for example the incident where Ben Thomas was asked of eye gouging. The ref looked at it live and determined it wasn't an illegal act, just a bit careless with his hands and fingers. Now if the ref had the option to send him to the bunker, he could well have just said I'll yellow card. However, if the bunker says it's not foul play then Wales have lost a player when they shouldn't have.

 

[AlRums]

JFC if we're relying on Dickson to explain things something has gone badly, badly wrong

Dickson was the AR that day, he was on the spot. Why didn't he bring it up then?

 

[AlRums]

Can't a ref just say also check for any foul play?

The tmo should have stated foul play, he can refer that directly to the ref.

How many times have we heard play stopped to check for foul play, originated by the tmo?