Brian O’Driscoll joined Joe Molloy in the OTB studio to discuss the controversial red card to Freddie Steward, and the Irish legend brilliantly sums up why he felt that South African referee Jaco Peyper got the call ‘spot on’.
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31 Comments
Red all day long. Look at this where Steward is as Hansen passes the ball. Steward is so far away from Keenan and has plenty of time to adjust his body position. And for the fools saying Keenan is leading with his head he is entitled to reach for the ball wherever it goes. The onus is on the tackler regarding safety to whom he is tackling. As for calling it a rugby incident please!!! The law was applied its a red. If it was the other way around English fans would be saying its a red. And I'm English. Laws must be applied equally to both teams playing
…great vid… it was a yellow card though… as much ‘head to elbow’ as ‘elbow to head…’
The blind Irish actually can see this one plain as day but when it’s there red card oh no never a red lol! Softest red card ina while. Yes he made contact with Irish fella but it weren’t reckless and it weren’t intended and we all know Freddie aint thay type of player. There’s nothing no human can do in that situation but yet you think it was red card worthy. Complete madness!
So on Saturday is was reckless with no mitigation now on Wednesday it’s still reckless but suddenly there’s mitigation! And that mitigation is Keenan and his movement…..?? Seriously How is ANYONE supposed to ref ?
No mention that his feet left the ground
Only it has been. Take your green tinted specs off BoD and apologise for your rudeness to JW.
My issue with the incident is that if Steward tackles Keenan 'properly' then Keenan could have gotten seriously hurt. When these new rules came into the NRL in RL in Oz James Tedesco ducked down when running with the ball and Lachlan Burr had nowhere to go and whilst being committed tackled Tedesco and got sent off. Even Tedeaco's coach said there was nothing Burr could have done, and he used proper technique by trying to go low. If he'd gone high ironically he'd have missed him.
Anyways I digress, I don't think Steward had time to alter his actions in 0.6 seconds.
I know some people will disagree but that's life. The red card didn't affect the result as the best team won, and would have won I believe without the aid of a red card.
SH has the 20 minute red card but I don't think it's the answer as it encourages more foul play by being less of a deterrent in my opinion.
Red all day long. No attempt to move or wrap. Blocked run of attacker. Lowered shoulder,. Watched the attacker in. Watched impact. Impact made direct to head….ARE YE BLIND?
Not biased at all 😂 this show is unhinged. Ireland have never been past a QF in the World Cup. Good luck 😂
So obviously not worthy of a red card that I can't believe anyone objective can think otherwise, personally I don't think it was even a penalty not sure what BOD is smoking these days but I think he needs to cut down as it's affecting his judgement.
Nigel said it was a red card in whistle watch today. That’s good enough for me 🇮🇪
Love O’Driscoll but the fact it took him 10 minutes to explain why he thought it was a red suggests to me that it wasn’t.
Whilst aware that the red card was rescinded, I fully agree with BOD on this.
1. The rules rightly protect player safety
2. The primary duty of care has to be with the defender
3. Steward was square on to Keenan and consciously turned his body elbow forward. It was this decision that caused the head contact to Keenan. As BOD noted, Steward was responsible for how the situation unfolded.
4. A lot of people argue that Steward was in a vulnerable position and it was an understandable action to turn his body. Fair enough. However, revert back to point 2. The duty of care rested with him and it can’t be the case that a justifiable response to a potential vulnerability is to make a conscious decision which generated actual harm to an attacker.
Seems to me Peyper made a ballsy decision and the disciplinary committee has sent out a terrible message by overturning it.
PS the term “rugby incident” or “rugby encounter” is an entirely meaningless and vapid statement that does not justify anything that happens on a rugby pitch.
The rescinding of the card had nothing to do with the incident. It’s happened before. WR killing themselves when the refs are trying to make the game safer. BOD is spot on and anyone with a real rugby knowledge would get that. 5 years ago it would have been fine… but not any more
Oh these green tinted specs.
the red card was pretty consistent with present-day decisions and that's all you can ask for in a referee
Obviously not
What he is describing about changing player behavior will result in there being close to no collisions in Rugby anymore. There is a danger of teams becoming so tentative in defence that they get applauded for not making a tackle due to player safety. It’s a contact sport, we need to accept there are risks. I don’t rate BOD as a pundit, when he was playing I always thought he was smarter than O’Connell, but have since discovered that O’Connell was the real brains in the team.
BO is wrong here… proven by the card being squished …
Easy! Stop Hugo Keenan rushing into Freddie and head butting him in the elbow. Looks like BOD got it wrong.
Wasn't even a fool. Probably cost England the game
Sexton was a disgrace pretending his head was caught. Utter disgrace, fair play to farrell for pointing it out.
Joe.. 'it was 100% a sheep. Bod, 'No Joe its a cow. Joe, ah right your 100% correct Brian.
Spineless
Just goes to show you can be a legend of the game and still have no clue what the F you’re talking about. World Rugby rescinded the red card following the framework that they themselves created. So stop being thick!!
Better player than pundit tbh
COYBIG
absolutely agree , its the responsibility of the defending player . Total RED all day
Steward had his eyes on Keenan the whole time and made no effort to change his body position to low or put his hands out to tackle or brake the impact – how many times do players need to be told to go in low and wrap the arms – season after season after season they keep going in high and hard – it is a straight and absolutely simple, clear cut red
Not a win for Ireland for me. Ref cheated and obviously did not want England to spoil the party. I will always say no grand slam for Ireland.
If it’s right to potentially ruin a competitive match, as a result of an accident, then the game will eventually be shooting itself in the foot.
Brian obviously has never had to fork out for international tickets to watch an international.
If the incident occurred out of malice then certainly send the offender off, if not a Yellow Card is the worst case in fair balance of such a penalty.
This incident occurred after the knock on offence had occurred beforehand, so the game should have been halted at that point, and when the game was restarted, it should have recommenced at the first offence.
We all knew that Ireland should have won this game, so this situation is not typically critical. Consider how the women’s World Cup final was obviously effected by such a decision.
Anyone going into a tackle can never decide to go into it half cooked, whilst awaiting for the ref to blow. That is absolute rubbish. Players from the outset are taught to play to the whistle, and we know how inefficient the ref’s decision making is always flawed.
Brian can now comfortably sit on a very pious fence and spout off, I find it very unrealistic.
Many people are liking the game less and less, as the Woke regime are closing in on the rules. We’ll be playing tag rugby soon with rubber pads on our limbs.
I fear for it’s future.
Except it has been, quite rightly, rescinded. It was an exceptionally poor decision taken by an egotistical referee who seemed keen to be centre of attention rather than the players! His desperation to be noticed & spoken about ruined the game as a spectacle.