In the 26th minute Australian referee, Stu Dickinson yellow cards Hurricanes prop Jon Schwalger for an indiscretion in a ruck on his own 5 metre line.
TV replays showed that the ball was being transfered to the back of the Chiefs’ ruck when it hit a Hurricanes player and bounced clear. It was not swiped away illegally.
Dickinson was on the other side of the ruck but seemed to have convinced himself that foul play was involved. His linesman (with a better view) seemed to be in complete agreement and gave him Schwalger’s jersey number.
Commentator Grant Fox said: ‘that’s actually nonsense’, describing Schwalger as being ‘very hard done by there.’
The most that was deserved was a short-arm penalty for not rolling away.
Donald missed the penalty kick, which was a bit of justice but the Chiefs scored their first try while they had the numeric advantage, stretching the Hurricanes out wide.
The Chiefs had the general run of play but the Hurricanes were always capable of winning, They opened the scoring with a try against the run of play (and with a hint of a forward pass).
The ball looked to travel forward from Victor Vito to Ma’a Nonu for the Hurricanes try that put them ahead on the 20 minute mark.
Dickinson was behind the play and so (quite rightly) consulted his linesman who was lot closer. Without confirmation of being forward, Dickinson gave the try.
Bottom Line
The wining margin was just 4 points
The Hurricanes could feel a little hard done by
When bad calls are made early in a game, they seem to lose some of their controversial edge but there’s no getting around the fact that it was a bad call and could have cost the Hurricanes their season.
