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Los Pumas fullback in hot water following Boks defeat
By Ian Cameron
Argentinian rugby player Juan Cruz Mallia has found himself in hot water after being cited for alleged foul play during a recent Rugby Championship match. The Springboks secured a nail-biting 22-21 victory over Argentina in front of a roaring crowd of 44,357 fans at Emirates Airline Park in Johannesburg.
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In the opening moments of the match, Cruz Mallia made a forceful charge down of Springbok scrumhalf Grant Williams, blocking a right-footed kick by the halfback, who was set to gather the ball deep in the 22. Unfortunately, Mallia’s follow-through hit Williams in the head with his hip. Despite the stoppage after a South African infringement, referee Andrew Brace ruled that Mallia was committed to the collision after touching the ball and deemed it not foul play.
As a result, Williams was knocked out and stretchered off, allowing Faf de Klerk to replace him on the field.
SANZAAR confirmed that Cruz Mallia allegedly breached Law 9.11, prohibiting players from engaging in reckless or dangerous behaviour that could harm others on the field. The incident came under scrutiny upon reviewing the match footage, and the Citing Commissioner determined that it had met the criteria for a red card, signalling serious foul play.
As a consequence, the matter will be brought before the SANZAAR Foul Play Review Committee for consideration. The video-conference hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, 1st August, with representatives from Argentina, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand participating at 5 am (ARG), 10 am (SA), 6 pm (AUS), and 8 pm (NZ).
Should Juan Cruz Mallia choose to attend the hearing and plead guilty, he will have the opportunity to accept the penalty proposed by the committee to expedite the resolution of the matter.
I'm not an idiot I typed the draft way before you said go. Muppets are so predictable
OK. All good. I'm done. Reply back if you're an idiot. 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 Go!!!
By the way I don't take any of this stuff too seriously. It's just for fun.
Lol. Don't for a minute think I will give you the last word.
There it is lol.
Wilt and die Petal.
Wilt and die petal.
I agree with what you say. I don't agree with the rules. We might as well be playing Netball. I could accept yellow for reckless and unintentional and a citing, but not red. Red ruins the game. Do you know of any other Global game that keeps changing the rules with monotonous regularity like Rugby does? It reflects very poorly on those in charge.
Well done, Ian on your summary of the Prima Donnas being our on field referees! I have found a way to identify the worst offenders - it is those who hold their arms out just above the horizontal for five, six Eight seconds! I believe the signal is 'play on' say, in a turnover situation, and should be for two seconds max. That Auzzie clown, Gardner does it for 6+ sec and what he is using it for is "look-at-me!" He even does it before the ball is thrown to a lineout! He holds it so long you could use him for a clothes line!
Barnes was guilty of extended extensions in the first Bledisloe as well, although I thought his overall performance was good. But I will Never Forget 2007.
GO Black!
Dave
Just watched the video, it was reckless and direct to the head with force and no mitigating factors. Red card all day. Whether there was malice or not is irrelevant.
Wayne Barnes let TMO overrule him re tap penalty. It May be the letter of the law but it has never been interpreted that way. Consistency is what we ask for.
TMO didn't overrule Barnes. Barnes sought TMO clearance for the tap kick (or not) & got it. Poor ole Telea's foot completely missed the ball lol. Good refereeing.
Things like this make my blood boil. There was no intent. It was an accident. If there was no injury there would be no citing.
Hi Derek. If I complete the tackle - use my arms and I did not mean to make head to head contact / no malice - that’s OK ? You know that is not how the game is being reffed. Head contact is a card irrespective of how the head contact occurred. `Start with a red - then go down mitigating circumstances etc. to a yellow and finally to a penalty. Nowhere in the interpretation of the rules is a head contact - rugby incident just play on. The latest refs conference agreed that the challenging/tackling player has an obligation not to make head contact. Thats how calls are being decided. Or do you disagree?
It was reckless intent, you can't hurtle yourself midair like a missile at a kicker & when you knock him out say it was an accident. If allowed to get away with this then cue multiple player missiles at kickers as a tactic, right?
Are you high? No injury? The guy was out cold , missed the rest of the game and next 2 weeks at least. On debut. That aside , no malice so shouldn't be a lengthy ban.
I am so tired of the referee show in rugby. It's getting worse.
That TMO bunker idea is giving the referees and their harem of assistants even more opportunities to take the stage and fuck things up. Why don't we get them in a hot tub on the halfway line next?
Some of these refs ego's are also over inflated. Too much attention. Ever since they were given microphones... Here are a few suggestions.
1. When a referee (or TMO) has a howler - drop them. It's absolutely ludicrous that NONE of the officials thought there was a problem with head contact (intentional or not) that rendered a player unconscious. PSTD got carded for being pushed into a player in a ruck head first.
The laws are clear and unambiguous. They should get dropped. Less games, less money. Simple.
2. It's time to start using technology.
If that bloody stupid game football can tell you if a player's pinky toe crosses a line - I am sure we can get some tech in to immediately call:
2.1 A forward pass
2.2 A knock-on
2.3 When an English prop puts his hand/knee down in a scrum
2.4 Which Kiwi collapsed the maul
2.5 A skew lineout
2.6 I could do this for a while.
Referees need to go down a few notches in importance in the game. Especially when (in tight, knockout stages) a stupid decision can ruin the game.
They had a replacement, no bad intent, great game not spoiled by red card.
Agree with much of what you say Ian to but why do you use England players Kiwis in your examples ?
Are you South African by any chance ? Because they're the cleanest, fairest most innocent rugby players on the planet aren't they ?
SACK that idiot referee & his TMO. Or at the very least send them to rigorous retraining. Bloody ridiculous.
It's the citing commissioner.
He did succeed in charging down the halfback’s kick.
No malice.
So much wrong with that statement. The rule doesn't allow for how the player felt while committing the misdemeanor. It is clear. If a player makes contact with force to another player's head it's a red. Clear straightforward and simple. Yet Brace chose to ignore that simple rule.
Read the article. The law they reference is "prohibiting players from engaging in reckless or dangerous behaviour that could harm others on the field" it does not state unless he is able to successfully charge down a kick' . Go back and look at the career ending hit on Patrick Lambie from CJ Stander in the 2016 game between Ireland and SA. It was 100% the same offence and CJ was red carded. Brace made a terrible call but then again he never does a good job as a referee.