Munster were home and hosed against the 13 men of Stade Français. Thomond Park, aka the House of Cards, was rocking, there were barely five minutes left.
Then, out of the blue, came some nasty foul play, the culprit being Stade’s Ryan Chapuis. Completely ignoring the ball, he targeted Munster’s Shane Daly. He certainly didn’t shoot and miss. It was a gratuitous, cheap, late shot involving head contact. It left a sickened fullback crumpled on the floor. Eventually, referee Luke Pearce studied the screen. Astonishingly, he saw little to complain about, and awarded only a penalty – an extremely poor call.
Pearce then “admonished” Chapuis. It was the friendliest chat I’ve ever seen after a foul play sanction. While the referee grinned broadly, the Stade player placed his hands on Pearce’s shoulders. It was comical, preposterous and inappropriate. All that was missing was a “petit bisous” on each cheek. There’s a time to smile and a time to be deadly serious.
If Pearce decided a card was unnecessary because he had already delivered two reds, that has no logic. If he genuinely believed that the foul play merited only a penalty, then some serious recalibration is necessary.
Why can't Irish rugby produce players with genuine pace?
The referee had started well, and his communication was not overbearing. However, soon enough he found his voice and his French phrase book. We heard from him pretty much non-stop, including his needless thanking of players for obeying his instructions. Pearce, like other referees over the weekend was colourfully visible, decked out in a near-luminous canary yellow shirt and socks. Whoever thought that up needs to think again, it’s awful. But I digress.
Let’s look at the cards in a bit more detail. The first was yellow, copped by Munster’s Alex Nankivell, who was the luckiest boy in Limerick that Pearce did not go the full monty for his hit on Lucas Peyresblanques – deeming that he was dropping was one hell of a stretch. It looked a lot more like he was bracing himself for the collision. Nankivell needs to be aware that a repeat of this tackle is very unlikely to be treated so kindly.
Then both of the visitors’ secondrow forwards, Pierre-Henri Azagoh and Baptiste Pesenti, left the field in quick succession. In both cases Pearce produced straight reds.
The swinging arm on Peter O’Mahony was indeed appalling. Yet while the ref’s call can be understood, the Munster man was clearly falling to ground and we usually see very heavy hits mitigated for just that reason. If O’Mahony had been upright the contact would have been to his midriff. It was completely inconsistent with how Nankivell was treated.
When Craig Casey was lifted, turned over and dropped to the ground, he did not land on his head. There was no real danger to him, it was quite a soft landing in fact. This red card was also too severe, the usual mitigation again went missing. A long time ago I lost the argument that this type of tackle should always “see” red, irrespective of how the player lands. I doubt that World Rugby have changed the docket.
So, until Pearce’s benign approach with Chapuis, Stade Français might well ask whether or not they got equal treatment from the man in the middle.
We also saw a Munster player thrown into the pitch side hoarding, which was misread by the referee. He blamed Munster, when clearly the Stade Français ball carrier was guilty. In fairness to Pearce, he stated that the penalty was for two reasons, the second being Jack Crowley’s inappropriate language. That’s okay, but why not speak to the outhalf, who appeared to have been shoved, before expletively telling his opponent to go away.
When he realised his mistake, the referee insisted that the penalty was against Crowley, fair enough I suppose. He was fortunate to have the second offence in his pocket. Putting things as politely as I can, Pearce will have better days. He will need to – altering his non-stop verbals would be a good place to start.
In Bristol, Leinster were also reduced to 13 men, fortunately two early cards were of the yellow variety. The first went to Ronan Kelleher for repeated team infringements, the second to Max Deegan for one of several Leinster foot trips. Joe McCarthy, inexplicably, didn’t follow him, for the same offence.
Sam Prendergast was fortunate to remain on the pitch after sliding in feet first to execute a so-called tackle. It was a tackle that Don Revie’s Leeds United would have been proud of – nowadays footballers see red for it.
Leo Cullen doesn’t need telling that the outhalf needs serious tackle mentoring, that’s two weeks in a row he’s just about avoided a serious card. While his overall display wasn’t far short of sublime, it’s an accident waiting to happen.
The match was a huge challenge, and learning curve, for Pierre Brousset who took us through the law book in determined style. Leinster were pinged 17 times, Bristol eight. But I have no quibble with his scrum yellows for Andrew Porter and his immediate opponent, Max Lahiff.
There was one lineout throw by Bristol which went askew. Leinster didn’t jump or compete. But there’s a law coming down the tracks whereby failure to compete will see the referee not whistling crooked throws, the rationale being that it will assist continuity. We all know what’s evolved at scrum time since a little leeway on crooked throws was originally allowed. I just wonder where this will end up.
