This whole topic is getting ridiculous.

I recently watched a few clips involving players like Kelvin Skerrit, Cowie, Fogarty etc. Now those were incidents where some players involved saw red and probably oversteped the mark - but it was good old fashioned hard rugby.

What has joel done?

Been a little bit silly in taking the ball up first tackle after the scrap.

Any other time in the game that would have been penalty at worst. The photos clearly show he goes in very hard (isn't that what good rugby is about), hits the defender legally and pushes him away whilst still driving forward - isn't that what we want to see from forwards running the ball in?

As part of pushing him away, his arms go up and make later contact to the defenders head. Poor technique maybe but not an intentional attack to the head as it may have looked initially.

This thread can be summarise by:

No intent to hit his head.
Every very intent to run over the top of the defender.

That's exactly what I want to see in pretty much every hit up by a forward.

Dear Inside man

re above, please see 2009 challenge cup semi final

Regards

Matt King

That's actually a very very good comparison thinking about it.

Yeh I agree it looked dangerous at full speed and Ganson only had one look but had Ganson taken the proper action after the brawl which resulted in Joel running in the penalty tap (which there doesnt seem to be any footage of in any of the highlights), neither Joel nor Yeaman would have been one the pitch.