Law Interpretations: Wales get Lucky, Wallabies suffer

There has been so much controversy around the referee’s and a few ‘analytical’ videos doing the rounds that don’t even properly highlight the events and explain the laws. Instead of diving into a few that have done the rounds for/against the Springboks I thought I would look at two pieces of foul play from the past weekend.

All any rugby coach/player/fan wants is for things to be clearly black and white, either it is right or it is wrong. Sadly the Rugby Laws have a fair bit of grey area’s. The below issues do not. There are two decisions made by officials in the below clips, one is correct and one is not.

The Law:

1: Gareth Thomas – Wales v Australia:

The decision by Adamson on this call clearly upset the Wallabies and rightfully so. Gareth Thomas has come in recklessly and gone in to clear out a player who is on the ground and not over the ball. His right forearm has hit Alaalatoa square on the head.

The commentators mention the referee speaks of ‘low force’ and that seems to be the mitigating factor used to downgrade the red card to a yellow. For me, the reckless nature of the clean out on a player whom is on the ground and not involved in the play anymore then making head contact with fair force, regardless if he attempts to wrap, is a red card offence.
It is important to not that Alaalatoa is also lucky not to get a card for his challenge in the tackle. I think it is fair to say the officials missed a bit here.

2: Tomas Lavanini – Ireland v Argentina:

I have not come across anyone who has disputed this decision. It is 100% right. Lavanini enters from the side recklessly and takes out a player who is not in play and on the ground. The only difference between these two actions is that I feel the Thomas one was reckless and the Lavanini one was reckless and malicious.

Interesting that both Skelton and O’Mahony get involved afterwards because they knew exactly what went down.