This looks horrific in real time, but the slowed down replay with the angle behind the player in White (further down the Twitter thread) shows that it isn’t how it looks:
- It’s not high at the point of contact (shoulders not neck) and rides down the tackled player rather than up. There is no head on head
- The tackler clearly wraps their arms
When slowed right down, it’s clearly after the ball has been kicked but on the slowed down replay the ball leaves the foot of the player in white just as 6 seconds turns into 7 on the video and then impact happens just as 7 seconds turns into 8 - So much less than a second in real time.
The player in white also has both feet off of the ground at the point of impact from having kicked the ball then braced for impact.
I winced watching it full time, but on second thoughts and looking at the replay in the thread I think it’s a much more marginal decision that it seems.
As it stands, I think a straight red is very harsh, although not sure id be wanting to give anything less in front of a partisan crowd and a riled up team in white. Even giving a yellow on the basis of late feels harsh given the lack of time to pull out of the tackle (ie a split second, quite literally). So you’re only really giving a card because a player has been hurt by a hard tackle?
Of course, if the player in white hadn’t of been a foot or so in the air, they’d have had their head taken off.
But the game isn’t really reffed on what-ifs.
Topic: Easiest Decision of the Weekend. (Read 937 times)
Always a Wasp