Am I right in thinking you were/are a ref pal? In fairness you’re clearly going to be in a great position to judge. I’m looking on very much as a fan and just see a tackle, the sort of tackle that has been going on for donkeys years and people didn’t bat an eyelid but the games been trying to make it safer to participate for years and I’m obviously missing the real technicalities of what Smithies has done wrong. I’ll stick by the comment that if that warrants 4 games, then one similar to what Ferres did on Gildart should get 10 games going forward. That looked far far worse to the untrained eye.

Oh for sure Ferrers was worse, and he's a more experienced player as well who definitely should have known better. It won't have helped Smithies that he escaped with a bin on the day. Hopefully he learns from it, I like forwards playing aggressive but hate these kind of tackles.

Anyone noticed ZH seems to be on the warpath with regards to this topic, on twitter?
What’s he doing at all? Just asking for trouble arguing for with other clubs fans.

I think the "Backing in" statement refers to the first one with Bullock
It's a common issue, I reckon a large % of crushers are after a player has backed in to the tackle.

As for Smithies, I do think it warranted a ban, and it was worse on 2nd watch, seennworse get less but que sera as they say

Agreed. As with Gale last week, his demeanor during the game didn't help his case. You don't want to be getting a reputation with the refs at this early stage in a career.

yep

he has to carry some of the blame yes, you put yourself in a dangerous position and accidents can happen, didnt say Clare per say neither I said "attackers" so meaning all who do it

the duty of care lies with the referee the onus is on the defender

Watch it again, Clare doesn't back in, he is spun round by Havard and Smithies.

I'm trying to stay out of this as I agree it should be a ban, I just think so a touch harsh given what's gone before but as I said earlier que sera
Anyway, Clare dips his head into the chest of Smithies after the initial contact, which leaves Smithies in a difficult position being over the top of him, what he did from there wasnt great and as havard etc are turning him he needs to release somehow and certainly not lose his feet so he has little control.

see the problem here is, its not a crusher tackle, in the known sense, its not one of these where the attacker has turned his back and dropped to the floor and the defender (on his back) comes down on top and forces the neck forwards as they come to the floor.

i have a degree of sympathy with smithies here as its one of those combined effort situations, like you see with tip tackles, one person picking a leg up is ok, 2 people doing it at the same time not realising the first person is doing it, is where it goes out of control, and then you ask, who's actually to blame?

smithies holding on, whilst the body is turned by others is turned is what causes the injury.

That being said, i cringed the moment i saw clare with his head down and smithies had the double underhooks, i used to do BJJ and thats a scary ing position to be in, in terms of body control, even one on one

Like I said I didnt say Clare per say I said attackers