Shame on you Justin Marshall

"Irresponsible commentary

I am dismayed by New Zealand commentators who fail to support refs around head contact. Glen Jackson correctly sent off Sio Tomkinson for a dangerous tackle. The World Rugby directive is there for a good reason. But Justin Marshall thought the decision "incredibly harsh." Mils Muliaina said "I don't believe it was a red card." Come on, guys. We need to get the tackle height down. We don't want a generation of dementia. Sky has a responsibility here. Right now they are failing the families of New Zealand.

Akira Ioane looks the part

Ioane was a monster for the Blues against the Crusaders. He looks to have done some serious conditioning in the off-season. The young number eight was very impressive at the back of a retreating scrum, picking up the ball and getting the Blues off a perilous position on their goal-line. Ioane manhandled Matt Todd on a couple of occasions, throwing him off like a piece of red fluff, and scored a sensational try. Is this the start of a serious push to the World Cup?"

Marshall says some really dumb stupid cringeworthy stuff.

If Akira wants to get into the RWC All Blacks Squad for 2019 he has to stop showing off, being selfish and playing as individual and instead start playing intelligent rugby for the Team instead of playing just for himself.

t hakwa

I know he NZ members do not like Marshall and in some cases you do have a point.   I though Akira Ioane did very well in the game on Saturday and he was to my mind the MOM - so whatever what was said about him was weird and inappropriate,   

What I could not fin thus far is the ruling on the disciplinary action against Tomkinson - was he guilty or not?    

Marshall saying "he's not leading with the shoulder" just because his arm wasn't tucked behind his body was pretty stupid. It was clearly an intentional shoulder. He never looked to make a proper tackle. The red is okay if we're going to see red for all similar offenses going forward. Doubt that's going to happen though.

The red card has been scrapped. SANZA AR also thinks a hanging arm and a leading shoulder is an attempt to wrap.

Seems like this campaign against high hits is little more than smoke and mirrors.

I found the not guilty verdict on Tomkinson and after reading that it was clear that Marshall was correct about the issue.   I think Jackson's problem was that it involved Brodie Retallick and according to Jackson and other referees it is a mortal sin to touch certain untouchable players of which Retallick is one.  

The red card was a total over-reaction and Tomkinson is free to play this coming weekend.   But then the orc minion has come up with his normal BS again and everyone else is wrong - he is right. 

But then the orc minion has come up with his normal BS again and everyone else is wrong - he is right.

LOL. You're like a hysterical old woman, Mike.

And I stick to my opinion. There was no attempt at any point by the player to effect anything other than a shoulder challenge .

Whether it was a red or not depends on how seriously World Rugby wants their lower tackle directive enforced. My guess is that if there was no such directive Jackson would not have produced a red for that challenge. Right now it seems nobody really knows and few actually care.

the incident took place at around the 68th minute,.... this meaning that there would have been no significant difference btwin a yellow and a red,... in which case both Justin Marshall and Muliaina shouldn't have begun to inflate an insignificant case

and then there's the SANZAAR judicial committee,... I don't know how they choose these committees but each one says and rules whatever they want,.... there has to be some coherence and continuity in them,... otherwise they are creating more confusion and chaos to a very sensible matter as it is the reffing,... happened also last year when they dismmissed another red card very correctly shown by Gardner,... that time the selected committee throw overboard years of their own recomendations and rulings

Tomkinson's action was a blatant shoulder charge,... the highlanders player didn't do anything to wrap or try to wrap the chiefs player with his arm,... besides, the only thing he did was to move the shoulder forward to make the hit with it (probably because a very big unit was coming to him and in an attemp to not being thrown backwards or to not being hit to hard),.... but it was a blatant shoulder charge

The committee said that:

"On careful review of the footage, and on receiving further evidence as above, the committee determined that the player did not make contact with the head of the Chiefs player and he did attempt to use his arm in the attempted tackle.
"The judicial committee found that the player made contact with his shoulder to the shoulder of the Chiefs player," committee chairman Michael Heron QC said in a statement."

I don't know if the first hit was shoulder-shoulder,.... it wasn't very clear,.... but to say that "the player did not make contact with the head of the Chiefs player and he did attempt to use his arm in the attempted tackle" is totally wrong,.... there was contact btwin the shoulder and Retallick's head,... in fact, he had to leave the field with concussion (and there wasn't any other hit to his head latter) ,... in the same way, there wasn't any "attemp to use his arm"

Very concerning, has honest Justin succumbed finally to his nz genes!

Basque, you mentioned Gardener? The same one that gave Farrel a pass with his shoulder charge too?

I agree with you, there is very little consultancy and a supposed professional sport is run by a bunch of amateurs. What a farce.

Moz, correct, the same thing as SBW lions red. These refs have no balz. The one who makes the call for red should be a TMO in another city...and anonymous too, no intimidation at all.

yeah, exactly the same action as SBW's red,..... and in both cases the red was correctly shown,....

what I cannot understand is the inconsistency of the judicial committees ,.... SBW was suspended for 4 weeks,... but Tomkinson's red is dismissed now,....

I've been complaining about the subjective allocation of the laws for a long time. World Rugby is sti?l an old boys club, run by amateurs.