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Harlequins scrum-half Danny Care can count himself as very fortunate that he was not red-carded against Northampton Saints on Saturday at Twickenham.
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The 37-year-old was yellow-carded by referee Karl Dickson in the first half of the contest with the Gallagher Premiership leaders for a high tackle on Courtney Lawes (you read that correctly), before finding himself in hot water in the second stanza.
A Northampton break was brought to a halt after Care dived straight over a ruck to stop his former England teammate Alex Mitchell from playing the ball.
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Dickson immediately reached for his pocket to show a yellow card, which would have resulted in a red, but was sidetracked by an altercation. Upon review, the decision was that Care would not be yellow-carded, much to the dismay of the commentary team of David Flatman and Brian O’Driscoll. But Care disagrees.
Despite sporting a grin on his face after being substituted immediately after this incident, Care said after the match that he believed the ball was out.
“I thought the ball was out,” he said to Ugo Monye on TNT Sport
“Straight bat, I thought the ball was out.
“That one [the Lawes tackle] the rules are the rules. He’s a big lad. I don’t know how I got high enough to hit his head. But it’s one of those. I’ve got to get my head out the way and go a bit lower. Disappointed myself there.
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“This one [the ruck infringement], I think the ball’s out. I’m trying to get the ball.”
Pundit Lawrence Dallaglio gave his take on the events though, and certainly did not agree with Care.
“I spent a lot of time on a yellow card and I can assure you, after a linebreak, that is a stonewall yellow card,” the former England captain said.
Care did concede that the squabble after his dubious rucking may have been his saving grace.
The England centurion added: “There was a little fracas after which maybe helped me out.”
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Not sure how Karl Dickson can ever ref a Quins game, he played for the club for 8 years as understudy to Care and is still close friends with half the team
Danny don't care. He pretends to care but he don't. He says all this stuff to justify his reasoning but no one can claim that legitimately. He knew exactly what he was doing and wondered if his old team mate would overlook it, which he did. Ref has got to be sidelined or properly trained. It's one thing for refs to move up the ranks but if it was me I would require refs to either have played in different clubs or not at all having the temptation to bias in high stakes games like this.
This has got to be stamped out. But then again World Rugby is so destroying the game of rugby in an attempt to be more “safe” and “concussion free”. What they are doing is making it more infuriating for the fans and more difficult for the refs to officiate evenly and consistently. It's fast become Australian Rules football. If guys don't want concussions, they should have played chess. Stop complaining you oldies of the game. When they played the game was vastly heavier hitting than it is now but of course they can't see that.
Danny Care. Lang in die tand.