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Nigel Owens brilliantly simplifies the debate surrounding the Manu Tuilagi red card

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Nigel Owens has used a driving analogy to simplify the debate surrounding the red card issued to England’s Manu Tuilagi in last weekend’s Guinness Six Nations match at Twickenham. 

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Tuilagi was sent off in the closing minutes for a tackle on Wales’ George North and was subsequently banned for four weeks at a disciplinary hearing. The incident sparked heated debate, with England boss Eddie Jones describing the decision taken by referee Ben O’Keeffe as “absolute rubbish”. 

Eddie Jones to discuss his England future with the RFU

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He said: “I found the red card bizarre. I do not know how you are meant to make a tackle when a guy is falling after a chop tackle. Manu was coming over the top to kill the tackle. It’s absolute rubbish and there is no common sense in such situations. Come on.”

Wales boss Wayne Pivac disagreed, saying: “It was the correct decision.” 

Reflecting on the incident where Tuilagi made contact with the head of North with his right shoulder as the wing neared England’s line, ducking into the challenge after being tackled by Henry Slade, Owens explained there could be no mitigation applied in favour of the England player as his approach to the tackle was illegal in the first place. 

Writing in his weekly walesonline.co.uk column, the veteran official explained: “If you are driving down a 30mph zone, you’re under the limit and suddenly, right out of the blue, someone runs out in front you and you hit them but there’s absolutely nothing you could have done about it, then you’re not going to be at fault.

“In rugby parlance, it’s a straight clash, possibly head to head, and no foul play has taken place. If you might have had time to stop, but couldn’t or didn’t, then you’re probably at fault, but mitigation may come into it.

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“In rugby parlance, you’ve tried to do everything right with the tackle, but a sudden movement and dip in height meant you made accidental contact to the head. But contact, nonetheless and there may need to be a sanction of some sort. Though not necessarily red.

“If you’re doing 40mph in a 30 zone, you’re completely at fault and there can be no mitigation. In rugby terms, you’re leading with the shoulder, or an arm, in the first place and make contact to the head, even though that was completely unintended. So, the tackle was never going to be legal. 

“It’s the process above that referees would use to make a judgement on decisions like the Tuilagi-North incident.”

WATCH: This is what happened when RugbyPass drove Shane Williams around the capital of Wales

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fl 3 hours ago
‘The problem with this year’s Champions Cup? Too many English clubs’

"Right, so even if they were the 4 worst teams in Champions Cup, you'd still have them back by default?"

I think (i) this would literally never happen, (ii) it technically couldn't quite happen, given at least 1 team would qualify via the challenge cup, so if the actual worst team in the CC qualified it would have to be because they did really well after being knocked down to the challenge cup.

But the 13th-15th teams could qualify and to be fair I didn't think about this as a possibility. I don't think a team should be able to qualify via the Champions Cup if they finish last in their group.


Overall though I like my idea best because my thinking is, each league should get a few qualification spots, and then the rest of the spots should go to the next best teams who have proven an ability to be competitive in the champions cup. The elite French clubs generally make up the bulk of the semi-final spots, but that doesn't (necessarily) mean that the 5th-8th best French clubs would be competitive in a slimmed down champions cup. The CC is always going to be really great competition from the semis onwards, but the issue is that there are some pretty poor showings in the earlier rounds. Reducing the number of teams would help a little bit, but we could improve things further by (i) ensuring that the on-paper "worst" teams in the competition have a track record of performing well in the CC, and (ii) by incentivising teams to prioritise the competition. Teams that have a chance to win the whole thing will always be incentivised to do that, but my system would incentivise teams with no chance of making the final to at least try to win a few group stage matches.


"I'm afraid to say"

Its christmas time; there's no need to be afraid!

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