The first yellow

[SilverShire]

What were people's thoughts on Fekitoa's yellow card? was it a correct decision, too lenient or too harsh?

Personally I thought that his shoulder made contact with the top of Dingwall's chest and if there was camera angle from the other side of the pitch it would have shown this. The bit that made it look bad was Fekitoa's hand on the top of Dingwall's collar bone. My call was that it was just a penalty, due to the hand placement.

[baldpaul101]

The question for me was if that had been a tackle perpetrated on a Wasps player, wold you have expected a card?

My answer would have been yes, it was high, although it wasn't intentional. Yellow was a fair call IMO.

Thought the ref had a decent game, he was at least consistent.

[Shugs]

Instinctively it looked like a good tackle live. But as with a lot of these things slowed down it looked questionable. I think it was shoulder to chest and the subsequent movement took just his lower arm around the collar bone. For me a very borderline yellow that could easily have just been a pen. Certainly not the red some on BT Sport were talking about.

[WonkyWasp]

  + 2

[Neils]

Instinctively it looked like a good tackle live. But as with a lot of these things slowed down it looked questionable. I think it was shoulder to chest and the subsequent movement took just his lower arm around the collar bone. For me a very borderline yellow that could easily have just been a pen. Certainly not the red some on BT Sport were talking about.

This. It looked as if a combination of Feks arm wrapping around the top of his arm and the Saints player falling cause Feks arm to slide up. No camera from that side to clear it up. However, if it were on our plkayer we would certainly have been calling for at least a yellow! Ref was generally fair.

[InBetweenWasp]

It was fractions of a second off being perfect.  Had he of hit him a touch earlier - as he landed, but before he Dingwall started to bend his legs and brace himself for impact he would have gotten him at chest height and no arguments.

It was a very, very fine margin between being an absolutely brilliant tackle, to a high one.

Yellow was fair.  Red would have been very harsh.

[Stinging Wasp]

Perfectly fair yellow and if a red had been given I wouldn't have been surprised.

[Hymenoptera]

Wasn't a yellow for me, would have raging had it been a red.
The saints player has a part in any outcome, he dipped his legs, had he not, it would have been a perfect tackle. You can't control what the opposition does so that needed consieration rather than just pure outcome. Neither the player nor any other saint batted an eyelid.

[DGP Wasp]

Agree yellow the right call. Seen red given for similar. I wonder if on another day 10,000 Saints fans baying for red may have influenced the ref towards red.

[MarleyWasp]

Yellow a fair call, although had there been a crowd I fully believe it would have been a red card.

For me it highlighted the weakness in Launchbury's captaincy. It got reviewed because the Saints players got in the ref's ear, as picked up by the microphones, but arguably the kick buy Naiyaravoro on Joe was worse and a more clear cut decision. Yet we didn't hear Joe mention it at all to the ref.

[BG]

Yellow was the right call by the ref. It might seem a bit lame to those who played rugby 20 - 30 yrs ago but times have changed.

I know what that tackle and the previous one did though by Feki.. no-one wanted to truck up the outside 13 channel.. especially if Mitchell was giving floated passes that opend up the ribcage.

I'm wondering what Fraser Dingwall did to deserve those passes? You could see it in his eyes.. thank god Fekitoa is off the pitch

[westwaleswasp]

If you have to run it multiple times to determine if it was high at all, having the TMO initially call it as fine, then a red should have been out of the question. Common sense prevailed, no red, and a borderline tackle does not spoil the match.

[Rossm]

Red would have been cruel.

[matelot22]

I agree it was a fair decision.

[Chunky24]

RFU disciplinary for Malakai apparently 3 foul play yellow cards in the season

https://twitter.com/Rreesrugby/status/1295379117752422400?s=09