Whilst a letter-of-the-law Red, I’d feel slightly aggrieved if that was say Josh or Zach hitting their 9, who bounced up. I know it’s not how these things are decided, but clearly Will was ok and it didn’t look malicious, just a fraction off. As a Wasps fan, I’d have accepted a Yellow.
We got our rub of the green yesterday in having 75 mins playing 14 men as I’m not convinced we’d have won it otherwise - Montpellier took their chances well.
I would of been fuming if it was yellow. It was a red clear as day. Extremely lucky that Porter was able to bounce right back up (maybe the adrenaline?). What if it had gone the other way and Porter suffered a serious injury that had him out for an extended period of time or worse. I agree it was unintentional but it was definitely a reckless move that deserved a red.
As for the comment that we were ‘lucky’ to win (which is a view shared by a few), I respectfully disagree. Yes the red gave us an advantage but:
- We were able to execute the plan Blackett set out and we kept the game flowing and wide. Yes we made errors but I didn’t mind because we were playing with flair and pace.
- We were missing our heavy weights and reliant on an 8 who up until that point had only played in that position twice and two inexperienced lads at half back. They, along with West and Odogwu, really stepped it up a gear and were instrumental in the win.
- For all the talk of the Montpellier pack, we were relentless and did exceptionally well in the set piece. Heck that game could of been lost with those 5m defending scrums in the last 10 minutes.
Credit where credit is due.